CHICAGO, ILLINOIS and TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 06/19/12 -- Despite a drop in housing starts in the United States, the real estate market is still recovering, according to BMO Capital Markets Economics.

The latest numbers released today show that U.S. housing starts in May fell 4.8 per cent to 708,000 units annualized. However, Jennifer Lee, Senior Economist, BMO Capital Markets, noted that there were upward revisions to the prior two months, especially April - now reported as 744,000 units, up 3.8 per cent from the initial report of 717,000 units.

"All of the declines in May were in the volatile multi-units category while the more stable single units actually rose for the third month in a row to a five-month high," said Ms. Lee. "Building permits, an indicator of what's to come for starts, jumped 7.9 per cent to 780,000 units, way beyond expectations to the highest level since September 2008. And there was a higher number of permits given out for single-family and multi-unit homes."

May 2012 Housing Starts and Housing Permits (thousands of units with % change from April 2012)

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             National   Northeast      Midwest         South          West  
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Housing                                                                     
 Starts     708 (-4.8%) 63 (-20.3%) 111 (-13.3%)   367 (-6.1%)  167 (+14.4%)
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Housing                                                                     
 Permits    780 (+7.9%)  81 (-8.0%)  121 (+6.1%)  399 (+11.1%)  179 (+10.5%)
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About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly-diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $525 billion as at April 30, 2012, and more than 46,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.