Spoiler alert! The outlook for jobs in home staging is very good.
Of course, that is the Stager Sidekick opinion of home staging job outlook. It came from doing some research, some analysis, and some observation. Then we put all of that in a bowl, mixed it up, and came up with our conclusion of a good job outlook for home stagers.
Let’s see how we got to that conclusion.
Research of Home Stager Job Outlook
It was in 2009 when CNN wrote that Home Staging would be the number one career poised for growth. At that time, the housing market was in shambles, and there were no signs of the housing market recovering. Since then, there have been numerous studies showing the importance that home staging helps to increasing the final sale price of a home and in reducing the length of time on market for properties for sale. The real estate industry is taking notice of the need for home stagers.
To get some concrete numbers, Bureau of Labor Statistic study states that as of May 2015 there were 51,050 interior designers. It is important to note that this number of home stagers includes all interior designers.
Analysis of Home Stager Job Demand
In our analysis of home stager job demand, we get into some numbers and calculations. They are important to quantify the job outlook. But if numbers give you cold sweats, then you may want to skip ahead to the “Number of Homes Staged per Home Stager” section, and just trust that our calculations are perfect.
Number of Homes that are Staged Each Year
In order to analyze the number of home staged per year, we first need to start out with some data from trusted sources:
- 34% of Realtors use a home stager for every home they list, according to the National Association of Realtors in 2015. Another 17% of Realtors use a home stager for some homes, but we’ll disregard those 17% for now.
- There were 421,300 Realtors in the United States, according to the BLS in May 2014.
- 5,250,000 existing homes were sold in 2015, according to data from the National Association of REALTORS®. 510,000 newly constructed homes were sold in 2015, to quote the U.S. Census Bureau. This is a total of 5,760,000 property transactions in 2015.
That means that over 143,000 Realtors use a home stager for every home they list (34% of 421,300). That also means that Realtors had an average of 13.6 listings that sold in 2015 (5,760,000 transactions divided by 421,300 Realtors).
Of the Realtors that staged every home they list, there were approximately 1,944,000 homes staged in 2015 (143,000 Realtors who stage every home X 13.6 listings per Realtor). That’s almost 2 million homes that are staged each year!
It is a fact that the number of homes that are staged must be much higher than 2 million, because we’re not even including Realtors that use a home stager for only some of the homes they list, nor are we able to include homeowners and developers who used a home stager. And we assume the number home staged is even higher because we all know that Realtors who stage homes are clearly the more successful Realtors, so they probably had more than 13.6 listings each year.
How many homes are actually staged per year? 2.5 million? 3 million? Nobody knows for sure, but it’s probably much higher than that. Stager Sidekick calculated that the number can not be any lower than 2 million home staged each year.
Number of Homes Staged per Home Stager
Ok, so 2 million homes staged per year is a pretty impressive number, especially considering that it is likely much higher. But is that enough to provide sufficient business for every home stager? Let’s find out.
We, unfortunately, have to assume that all 51,050 interior designers from our BLS data are home stagers. In reality, the number of home stagers in the US has to be much lower than 51,050, but that’s the only information we have to work with.
Considering that over 2 million homes staged last year, and there are only 51,050 home stagers, then each home stager staged an average of 38 homes a year (2 million divided by 51,050).
38 homes staged per year by home stagers on average is much less than one per week. That’s tough to make a living off of, unless you have significant margins. So we would assume that home staging is a bad occupation until we consider that the number of 38 home staged per year must be much higher for the following reasons:
- There are a lot less than 51,050 home stagers in the United States, but we’re using the best information available. If the actual number of home stagers is half that, then that means that home stagers staged an average of 76 homes per year. Now we’re talking!
- There are probably a lot more than 2 million homes staged each year. First, successful Realtors use home stagers, and those Realtors sold far more than the 13.6 homes we calculated. Second, we didn’t include the 17% of Realtors who sometimes use a home stager. Third, we don’t have information for the number of homeowners and developers who use home stagers. If the actual number of homes that were staged was actually 3 million, then that means that interior designers staged an average 57 homes per year. That’s more than one per week.
- Now, if we assume that only half of the 51,050 interior designers are home stagers from our first calculation and 3 million homes were staged, then that means that each home stager staged 114 homes per year. That’s over 2 per week, which is starting to become a healthy business.
Our estimation is that home stagers probably stage double (76) or triple (114) or even 10 times (380) the lowball average of 38 homes per year we calculated.
Ready to Get Started?
If you are ready to get started as a home stager, we recommend getting trained and certified, and then getting a website for your business.
Training
The Staging Diva is a premier online training company, that is also competitively priced. Most home stagers prefer online training, because of the flexibility of taking courses on their schedule, and they don’t need to travel to classroom training. Additionally, The Staging Diva provides higher quality training than most on site training. You can use our affiliate link to learn more about The Staging Diva training.
Website
In addition to providing great information on this website, Stager Sidekick also makes websites for home stagers. Our websites are professional, modern, and cost effective. Additionally, since we work with home stagers, we know what home stagers need in a website, and also what they don’t need.
For new home stagers, we recommend the Starter package. You can learn more about your new website from Stager Sidekick here.
Final Thoughts on Job Outlook for Home Stagers
There is strong demand for home stagers. And the demand is growing to make it a good career choice for the future.
From the publicity that home stagers are getting, to the competitive housing market, and reports on home stagers being a growing career, the need for home stagers is clear.
Considering a career in home staging? We are confident that there is enough work to keep you busy and make you successful.
