Virtual Staging Statistics 2026: Verified Data on ROI, Price and Speed

Staging statistics are easy to find and hard to trust. Figures such as "staged homes sell 73% faster" or "virtual staging returns 500–3,650%" could not be traced to any primary study when we checked, yet earlier versions of this page repeated some of them. This version uses only sources you can open: the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) 2025 and 2019 Profiles of Home Staging, NAR's 2026 buyer and technology reports, HomeLight, the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), Zillow and a 2026 study of altered listing photos. Every number names its source.

Virtual Staging Statistics 2026 at a Glance

Two caveats apply to nearly every staging statistic: most come from agent surveys rather than sale records, and they describe staging in general, not virtual staging specifically. We have not found an independent study that isolates virtual staging's effect on price or time on market, so this page separates what staging does for a sale from what virtual staging costs.

Sale Price Impact: How Much More Do Staged Homes Sell For?

The short answer: some agents see staged homes draw offers a few percent higher, many see no change or can't tell, and the effect is reported by agents, not measured in sale records.

What NAR's 2025 survey found

NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Staging is based on a February 2025 survey of Realtors: 49,806 were invited, 1,266 gave usable responses, and the margin of error is ±2.75%.

• 29% of agents said staging their sellers' homes led to a 1%–10% increase in the dollar value offered.
• 17% of buyers' agents said staging brought a 1%–5% increase compared with similar unstaged homes.
• 32% of buyers' agents said staging would raise a home's value if it was decorated to the buyers' tastes.

On a $429,100 home, the U.S. median existing-home price in August 2026, 1% is $4,291 and 10% is $42,910. Treat that range as what some agents observed, not as an expected result. NAR's 2025 release doesn't say how many agents saw no change; the 2019 edition did: 19% of sellers' agents saw no impact on the dollar value and 33% were not sure, while 22% saw a 1–5% increase and 17% a 6–10% increase.

What agents estimate

In a 2025 HomeLight survey, agents estimated that professional staging adds about $13,477, roughly 3.3% of a median-priced $405,300 home, and a fresh coat of paint nearly $12,130; a separate HomeLight survey of top agents put decluttering at $11,706. These are opinions, not sale records, but they fall inside NAR's 1–10% range and show agents valuing decluttering and paint almost as highly as staging.

What stagers report on price

RESA publishes quarterly results submitted by professional stagers. In 2025 the average sale-to-list ratio was 107% in Q1 (84 homes, an average of $56,000 over asking), 109% in Q2 (108 properties) and 109% in Q3 (129 homes), when homes priced $750,000–$1.49 million commonly sold about 9–10% over list. RESA's first-half 2026 report, covering homes staged by its members and sold from January to June, averaged 111% across 175 homes. The data covers staged homes only and comes from voluntary submissions, including RESA's "Sold Over List Price Club"; for 2026, RESA says its sale-price figures reflect that club's sample of above-list sales. So the figures show how some staged homes sold, not how much staging changed the price.

Virtual staging specifically

No independent study we have found measures virtual staging's price effect on its own. In NAR's 2025 survey, 34% of sellers' agents considered virtual staging less important to their clients and 24% equally important. Its case rests on cost and on the problem Zillow named when it added virtual staging to its listings: "Many buyers struggle to picture themselves in a home, especially when it's empty or styled differently from their own."

Time on Market: Staged vs Unstaged Properties

What NAR found

Almost half (49%) of sellers' agents in NAR's 2025 survey observed that staging reduced the time homes spent on the market: 30% saw a slight reduction and 19% a significant one. NAR's release does not say by how many days. The often-repeated "24 days versus 90 days" (a "73% reduction") could not be traced to a primary study, so it is not used here; 90 days is nearly three times the national median for all homes in August 2026.

The 2026 market backdrop

In August 2026 the median U.S. existing home sold after 31 days on the market, the same as a year earlier, according to NAR's existing-home sales report. Inventory rose to 4.9 months' supply, its highest level in over ten years, and NAR's chief economist said the "ample supply of homes for sale on the market is giving homebuyers better opportunities to negotiate." More supply means more listings competing in every buyer's search results.

Agent estimates of time saved

In a HomeLight survey, 34% of agents said a professionally staged home sells 1–2 weeks faster than a non-staged one, and 25% said 3–4 weeks faster (HomeLight). Like NAR's figures, these are agent estimates, not measured sale records.

Stager-reported days on market

RESA's 2025 snapshots averaged 12 days on market in Q1, 9 days in Q2 and 19 days in Q3 for the staged projects stagers submitted, and its first-half 2026 report averaged 10 days across 170 properties. The same limits apply: staged homes only, voluntary submissions, no comparison group.

Time to list

Physical staging involves a consultation, decluttering, and coordinating movers and furniture delivery, which HomeLight says can take from a few days to over a week. Virtual staging needs only the photos: on Roomagen a staged image usually takes under a minute.

Virtual Staging Cost Breakdown: AI vs Traditional vs Physical

Cost is where the options differ most, and it is the input you control.

How to read these numbers:

• 2019 and 2025 costs are not comparable. NAR's 2019 median of $400 covered all staging; the 2025 report splits it into $1,500 for a staging service and $500 when the agent stages. "Staging costs quadrupled" is not a fair reading.
• Who pays. In 2025, 23% of sellers' agents said they personally offer to stage, 17% said the seller pays before listing and 26% said it depends on the situation (NAR).
• Budget for attempts. AI staging is billed per generation, and a difficult room may take two or three tries. On Roomagen every staging generation, including a Refine correction, uses 2 credits; see pricing.
• Outside home sales, the cost math holds for rentals, short-term rentals, hotel rooms and offices, but the price statistics in this article come from home-sale surveys and don't transfer.

For a fuller comparison of furniture rental, stager fees and virtual staging, see our virtual staging vs traditional staging cost comparison.

Virtual Staging ROI: How to Calculate It for Your Listing

Most staging ROI percentages divide an assumed price gain by a cost and present the result as a finding. A calculation you can defend uses three inputs: cost, the price effect you expect, and any time saved.

Four steps

1. Add up the cost (C). Physical staging: the fee plus extra months of furniture rental. Virtual staging: photos × price per photo, plus re-runs.
2. Find the break-even price change: C ÷ expected sale price, the minimum lift staging needs to pay for itself.
3. Value the time saved: days saved × (monthly carrying costs ÷ 30). Carrying costs include mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, utilities and HOA fees.
4. Estimate ROI: (expected price gain + carrying costs saved − C) ÷ C. The price gain is the uncertain input; NAR's agents reported 1–10% in some cases and no change in others.

Break-even on a $429,100 home

Using the August 2026 U.S. median existing-home price and eight staged photos (four key rooms from two angles each):

If you stage only one listing a month, count the plan price instead of the per-image figure: a $12 Starter month is about 0.003% of the same price.

A worked scenario

Assume staging lifts the price by 1%, the low end of the range NAR's agents reported. On $429,100 that is $4,291: a net $2,791 after a $1,500 staging service, or about $4,288 after $3.20 of AI staging on Roomagen. We apply the same 1% to every option only to show the arithmetic; no study we have found measures whether virtual staging moves the price as much as physical staging does.

Time adds to the gain only if staging actually shortens the sale. As an illustration, carrying costs of $3,000 a month come to about $100 a day, so a week saved is worth about $700. NAR does not publish how many days staging saves, and HomeLight's one-to-four-week figures are agent estimates, so use days on market for comparable listings in your MLS.

What RESA's ROI figures measure

RESA reports average ROI of 2,334% in Q1 2025, 4,415% in Q2 and 3,551% in Q3, on average staging investments of $3,588 to $4,387, and 3,088% in the first half of 2026, when the average investment was $4,934. These cover staged homes only, with no comparable unstaged group, so they cannot show what part of the result staging caused; RESA itself notes that its calculated ROI "does not measure profit attributable solely to staging."

The takeaway: in this example, virtual staging needs a price effect under 0.1% to break even. What arithmetic can't settle is whether buyers feel misled when they walk in and whether the photos are properly disclosed.

Should You Fully Stage, Partially Stage, or Leave It Vacant?

The data narrows the choice. Just over half of sellers' agents (51%) don't stage before listing and recommend decluttering or repairs instead, 21% stage every listing and 10% stage only homes that are hard to sell (NAR, 2025).

HomeLight's comparison names the main weakness of virtual staging: a home that looked furnished online is empty at the showing, which can leave some buyers let down. One agent quoted there has clients display enlarged staged photos in the matching rooms during showings.

If you choose AI virtual staging, these Roomagen tools match the routes above: AI virtual staging for empty rooms (13 styles, 15 room types), redesign a furnished room to restyle what is there, Empty Your Space to remove all furniture and virtual decluttering to tidy without emptying. Paid plans add batch processing (3, 7 or 20 photos per run, room type set per photo), and Refine lets you type a correction of up to 500 characters on an empty-room staging or Empty Your Space result; each correction becomes a new version you can compare or download. Walkthrough: how to virtually stage an empty room.

Buyer Behavior: How Photos and Staging Influence Decisions

Staging helps buyers picture the home

In NAR's 2025 survey:

• 83% of buyers' agents said staging makes it easier for a buyer to picture the property as a future home, the same share as in 2019.
• 60% said staging affects some buyers but not always, 26% said it affects most buyers, and 12% said it has no effect.
• 31% said buyers were more willing to walk through a home they had seen online.

Online search is where first impressions form

NAR's 2026 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report covers buyers who bought a primary residence between July 2024 and June 2025:

• 46% of buyers started by looking online for homes for sale, and 52% found the home they bought on the internet (27% through an agent).
• Among buyers who used the internet, 81% rated photos a "very useful" website feature, the highest of any feature. Detailed property information came next (77%), then floor plans (57%) and agent contact information (44%); virtual tours scored 38% and videos 29%.
• Agents agree: in NAR's 2025 staging survey, 73% of buyers' agents called photos highly important to their clients, and 88% of sellers' agents rated them much more or more important.

If photos carry the first impression, they deserve the first dollars: fix lighting and color with AI photo enhancement before staging, and add a clean floor plan if you have a sketch or old plan to work from.

Expectations are set by TV, and by photos

In NAR's 2025 survey, 48% of agents said buyers expected homes to look like they were staged on TV shows, 58% said buyers were disappointed by how homes looked compared with TV, and 77% said TV shows set unrealistic or higher expectations. Staged listing photos can raise expectations the same way, so show the originals and keep the gap between photo and room honest.

Room-by-Room Staging Impact Data

Three patterns stand out:

• The living room leads on every measure. Buyers' agents rate it the most important room to stage, sellers' agents stage it most often, and it was the most altered of the interior rooms reported in Coraly's study.
• Kitchens matter but are rarely altered. Kitchens rank third with buyers' agents, yet kitchen and bathroom photos were altered in under 1% of cases.
• Guest rooms can wait. The guest bedroom scored 7% with buyers' agents and is among the least staged rooms (22%).

Before staging: what agents recommend

The most common home improvement recommendations agents give sellers (NAR, 2025):

• Declutter the home: 91%
• Clean the entire home: 88%
• Improve curb appeal: 77%

In photos, virtual decluttering can tidy a room, but it is an alteration just like staging: label it and keep the original.

Agent Adoption and Industry Trends: NAR 2019 vs 2025

NAR's 2019 and 2025 staging profiles show the reported effect of staging softening while its visualization benefit holds steady:

The surveys used different random samples (2,076 responses in 2019, 1,266 in 2025), so small gaps may be noise. The larger shifts point one way: fewer agents stage every listing, more recommend decluttering instead, and fewer say staging moves most buyers. When the expected effect is modest, cost carries more of the decision, and cost is where virtual staging differs most.

AI is now routine for agents, mostly for text

NAR's 2026 Technology Report found that 23% of agents use AI daily and 25% weekly, 31% experiment occasionally, 9% are curious but haven't tried it, and 12% don't use it and don't plan to, down from the 32% who had not yet tried AI in 2025. The top uses are text: listing descriptions (75%), social media posts (56%) and emails (52%); image editing is not among the top uses NAR lists. Drone photography or video is used by 48% of agents.

Sellers notice presentation too: in Zillow's 2024 Consumer Housing Trends Report, cited in its Showcase announcement, 71% of sellers were more likely to hire an agent who uses interactive media such as virtual tours or floor plans.

Virtual Staging Market Growth and Photo Alteration in 2026

We don't quote a market-size figure: research firms' estimates conflict, their methods sit behind paywalls, and we could not verify any of them. What can be verified points to wider use:

• Platform investment. Zillow acquired Virtual Staging AI in October 2024, offered its staging technology to photographers through Aryeo from March 2025 at no extra cost to subscribers, and in September 2025 added shopper-facing virtual staging to Showcase listings, with seven styles and an option to remove furniture (Zillow).
• Prevalence. A study by Coraly, which built an AB 723 disclosure workflow with San Diego MLS, found that nearly 11% of roughly 40,000 primary listing photos on Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and Homes.com showed digital alteration in Q1 2026 (Real Estate News). Rates ranged from 8.7% on Realtor.com to 12.4% on Homes.com; 69% of altered images involved sky replacement and 90% changed the exterior or landscape. Interior edits were relatively more common on Redfin and Realtor.com, which the report attributed mainly to more virtually staged images there.
• Regulation. California's AB 723 took effect in January 2026 and requires licensees to disclose digitally altered images in ads (see the next section).

Disclosure: Using Virtual Staging Without Misleading Buyers

Disclosure is where virtual staging's low cost can turn into a real one. Coraly's study found that more than 90% of altered primary listing photos carried no visible disclosure, a share consistent across the four portals.

What the rules say:

• California. AB 723, in effect since January 2026, requires licensed brokers and salespeople to disclose digitally altered images in ads for the sale of real estate and to link to a publicly accessible site showing the original, unaltered image. The law's definition covers adding or removing furniture, so virtually staged photos count. Our AB 723 guide covers the details and how MLSs apply them.
• NAR Code of Ethics. Article 12 requires Realtors to "present a true picture" in their advertising and prohibits misleading images, without mentioning AI or disclosure explicitly.
• New York. The Department of State warned consumers in late 2025 that AI images in listings "may produce misleading or exaggerated representation of properties."
• MLS rules differ on labels, watermarks and where the original photo must appear; see our MLS photo requirements and disclosure guide.

A practical checklist:

1. Label every virtually staged or decluttered photo the way your MLS requires.
2. Post the original photo alongside the staged version.
3. When you stage, change only furniture and decor; leave walls, floors, fixtures and views as they are, and disclose any other edit too.
4. Keep the original files.
5. Bring the staged images to showings so buyers can match them to the empty rooms.

Roomagen does not add a disclosure label to images by default, so adding one is up to you; our terms require users to disclose virtual staging and AI edits. You can turn on a small “AI” badge for downloads in Settings (“AI label on downloads”), but it does not replace the label your MLS asks for.

Popular Staging Statistics We No Longer Cite

Earlier versions of this page, like many staging articles, repeated figures we could not verify. We removed them:

A useful rule: if a staging statistic does not name its study, sample and year, treat it with caution.

Key Takeaways

• Staging helps buyers picture a home: 83% of buyers' agents say so, unchanged since 2019 (NAR).
• Gains are reported in some cases: 29% of agents saw offers rise 1–10%, and 49% of sellers' agents saw shorter market times (NAR, 2025).
• Fewer agents stage everything: 21% stage every listing, down from 28% in 2019.
• Cost is the clearest difference: a $1,500 median for a staging service versus $20–$50 per photo for virtual staging services and $0.23–$0.40 per image on Roomagen's monthly plans.
• In our $429,100 example, virtual staging breaks even below a 0.1% price effect, so the real risks are disappointed buyers at the showing and missing disclosure.
• Photos come first: 81% of online buyers rated them "very useful", the top website feature (NAR, 2026).
• Alteration is common and mostly undisclosed: nearly 11% of primary portal photos in Q1 2026, over 90% of them unlabeled; California has required disclosure since January 2026.