Americans back to moving south to booming Sun Belt

Washington

SUSAN Gifford moved last August from Rome, New York, to Garden City, South Carolina, where she lives in a home three kilometres from the beach. "The weather was the motivating factor, getting away from winter," the 67-year-old retired teacher said.

Almost 600,000 Americans moved from the mid-west and north-east to the Sun Belt states last year, the most since 2005, according to Brookings Institution demographer William Frey. Migration is boosting growth along south-east and western coasts as well as Nevada and Arizona, reflecting a healthier national economy that has made it easier to re-locate.