If the stager does all the work, the homeowner may spend $1,500 or more.

Last year, while the average American house doddered toward its fourth decade, homeowners spent over $100 billion to spruce up their homes.

But homeowners should spend less elsewhere right now.

If house prices fall, homeowners may feel less wealthy and spend less of their incomes - the so-called wealth effect working in reverse.

"Home prices continue to skyrocket and new homeowners spend over 40 percent of household income on homeownership costs."

Money that homeowners could have spent on upkeep goes instead to pay bloated tax bills, planning officials say.

In Hempstead, homeowners spent nearly $59.1 million in 2000 and $135.4 million last year, with a 70 percent increase per job.

Many homeowners would simply rather spend their money elsewhere.

Most homeowners, she said, spend much more.

A homeowner doing the job himself, she said, would spend about $250.