Toronto's October real estate numbers are out, and here's what everyone's missing.

Let's start with perspective. For the month of October, there were 1,500 sales in the condo markets. On the flip side, for detached, semis, and town homes, there were approximately 1,400. The reason I want to bring that up to you is to show you how big the condo market is in the 416.

To break it down further, in the 416, referring to the the downtown area,  between Dufferin, DVP, Bloor, and the Lake, this condo market represents 35% of the overall 416 condo market. The other sub-markets are in Etobicoke, Scarborough Town Center, as well as the Yonge/Finch corridor.

Specifically for the downtown condo markets west of Yonge, the average condo price cracked the $700,000 figure. East of Yonge, between Yonge and the DVP down to the lake, that average is $681,000. Semis in central Toronto are $1.35mil, and detached are $2mil.

Here's what everyone's missing out. Although the semis are averaging at $1.35mil in the downtown core, I'm still seeing opportunities for a lot less than that. I'll give you two examples. Last week, there was a property, semi-detached, listed for $800,000 that sold for under $800,000, and needed some work. There's another one that I'm looking at right now for another client that's also listed $800,000. It also needs work.

The reason I bring this up is if you look at the condo market in the 416 using  $650,000 as an average price, and we know it is much higher than that. Let's say you're paying maintenance fees of $500 a month. From a financing perspective, every $500 a month is equivalent to borrowing $100,000, so that $500 maintenance fee is like adding another $100,000 to the price, so theoretically speaking, that $650,000 condo is $750,000.

The reason I want to bring this up is I'm seeing semis in the core that are selling at $800,000, below $800,000, or less than $900,000 that need some work. The gap between the downtown condo market and the semis in central Toronto is as low as I've seen it for a long time. This is an opportunity that I think a lot of people overlook in the next month or two because that gap is very close. It's easy now, or easier, for a condo owner, and again, I'm using an average of $650,000 for them to move up from that condo space down to a ground-level type of housing.

Keep in mind these semis do need renovations anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 but there are ways to finance those renovations, and you'll still get in to ground-level housing for  possibly under a million dollars.