Williams said he plans to stock anywhere from 15 to 20 vehicles at a time and will try to focus on affordable, later-model vehicles. Williams, who has been in the car-selling business since 1981, said he thinks the increase in the number of used car lots is a sign of the times. The average age of vehicles rose during the recession. People now are needing to replace those older vehicles, but don’t yet feel confident enough to spend the type of money required for a brand new car.

“I think people are getting a little wiser with their money,” Williams said. “To buy a brand new car and drive it off the lot and see it depreciate by 30 percent, that is tough.”

Williams said he hoped to have the business open in the next few weeks. Look for some renovation work to occur at the site, but it will be minor. The business will keep the current building and the canopy that used to to cover the gasoline pumps.

Also look for some work to occur at a commercial building along Haskell Avenue. Lawrence-based Premier Auto has filed plans to move from its current home at 23rd and Haskell to 27th and Haskell in the building that formerly housed the shop and offices of Chaney Inc.

Ryan Blum, owner of Premier Auto, said he’s making the move because he’s tired of leasing space. He has the chance to buy the old Chaney building and said the new space should allow his business to grow.

“It will give us quite a bit more space,” Blum said. “The shop is about 50 percent larger. It will have more parking. It will allow us to carry a few more cars.”

Blum said additional space is needed because the company — which has been operating for 10 years in Lawrence — has grown beyond just a used-car business. The company also does vehicle leasing and auto detailing, and has a rental fleet of Penske moving trucks.

Blum said he hopes to have the new location open by late July.

In other news and notes from around town:

• “Boom” isn’t exactly the word I would use to describe Lawrence’s real estate market currently. Perhaps “bang,” as in the sound a starter pistol makes. If you are looking to buy a home in Lawrence, you had better be prepared to move fast. That’s been the case for the last several months, and the most recent report from the Lawrence Board of Realtors shows that is still the case.

The median number of days a home sits on the market before it sells is down to 16, according to the report.

Once you do start to move on a house, the next word to come to mind may be “ouch.” That is perhaps getting mumbled a bit as people see what is happening to Lawrence home prices.

As buyers become more competitive for the relatively small numbers of homes on the market, prices have been rising. The increases were dramatic for May, the most recent month for which Lawrence data is available. According to the report, the median selling price for homes sold thus far in 2017 is $182,900. That’s up 7.6 percent from the same time period a year ago.

The good news, for the industry anyway, is there still seems to be plenty of buyers on the market. That was in question after April’s report, which showed home sales decreased by 9.4 percent compared with April 2016. Realtors blamed a lack of available homes for sale.

But May was a big bounce-back month. Lawrence home sales in May increased by 7.5 percent compared with May 2016. Year to date, Lawrence home sales now total 485 and are up 6.8 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

But there also was a worrisome number in the May report. The number of active listings on the market stood at 248 for the month. That’s down from 260 in May 2016 and continues a months-long downward trend for homes on the market. That downward trend is what is driving home prices up.

It is an interesting — and powerful — trend to watch. City Hall officials are trying to plan for how they can make housing more affordable in Lawrence. Thus far, many of their efforts have focused on subsidizing particular housing projects, which may add a few dozen affordable housing units at a time. But, if the entire Lawrence housing market — thousands of homes — is seeing values increase dramatically, how much good does it do to add a few dozen affordable homes at a time? And, of course, not everyone sees rising home values as a bad thing. Some people see it as their largest investment is growing in value.

As someone once said, who knew this subject could be so complicated? More on that later, though. For now, here’s a look at some other statistics from the May report of the Lawrence Board of Realtors.

• Sales of newly constructed homes continue to boom. Year to date there have been 51 sales of newly constructed homes. That’s up 34 percent from the same period a year ago.

• As builders have built more homes in Lawrence, the price for new homes has gone down. Year to date, the median selling price for a newly built home is $299,900. That’s down 4.6 percent from last year’s median of $314,500.

• The higher home prices are equating into a big dollar year for the local real estate industry. Year to date, the total dollar value of homes sold in Lawrence stands at $105 million. That’s up 13 percent from the same period a year ago.

Town Talk column