How To Become A Housing Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a housing director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Housing directors are in charge of an organization's housing program and make sure that all residents have a safe, comfortable place to live. Housing directors can work in several different fields. They can work at universities and coordinate housing for thousands of students or for nonprofits or government agencies that run affordable housing complexes for people at risk of homelessness.

No matter where they work, a housing director is in charge of everything related to housing. They oversee a whole department of staff that helps match residents with homes. They communicate with current and prospective residents, property managers, and government officials to make sure that all regulations are followed. Housing directors also have to manage lots of paperwork, from housing applications to new regulatory policies for building management.

On average, housing directors earn $82,819 a year. Before they can get hired, they need to prove that they have several years of nonprofit or managerial experience. Many housing directors have bachelor's or even master's degrees in business or social work in addition to on-the-job experience.

ScoreHousing DirectorUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $60,957

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.7

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.88%

Asian 5.17%

Black or African American 11.64%

Hispanic or Latino 14.49%

Unknown 5.39%

White 62.43%

Gender

female 58.80%

male 41.20%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

9.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.0

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a housing director

Explore housing director education requirements

Most common housing director degrees

Bachelor's

60.8 %

Master's

19.2 %

Associate

12.1 %

Start to develop specific housing director skills

Skills	Percentages
Oversight	12.98%
Property Management	6.90%
Affordable Housing	6.44%
Residence Life	5.65%
Community Resources	5.30%

Complete relevant housing director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New housing directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a housing director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real housing director resumes.

Research housing director duties and responsibilities

Educate provider offices on Medicare and Medicaid incentives relative to achieving meaningful use.
Work directly with students, parents, student groups, organizations, departments, alumni, vendors, and others.
Provide oversight of specify program components.
Prepare budgets and perform fiscal oversight.

Get housing director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a housing director. The most common roles before becoming a housing director include internship, property manager team lead and executive director.

Prepare your housing director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your housing director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a housing director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable housing director resume templates

Build a professional housing director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your housing director resume.