Fenton, a former executive for a general contracting firm, said he owns about an acre and a third in the village and plans on staying despite the Chicago winters because of the surroundings and easy access to both the city and O'Hare International Airport.

Barton Hills Village, Michigan, ranked No. 4, offers the "ambiance of privacy without isolation," according to the town's 2010 master plan. It's set among hills on the Huron River overlooking Ann Arbor, which is home to the University of Michigan, and has three stone-pillar entrances known as the Lower Gate, Upper Gate and West Gate.

'Gatsby' Connection

Three of the places in the top 10 are small villages within the Town of North Hempstead on New York's Long Island. The area, once home to "The Great Gatsby" author F. Scott Fitzgerald, offers residents a marina and a less than 30-minute trip to Manhattan by express train. Harbor Hills, Kings Point and Great Neck Estates each had average retirement incomes of more than $114,000, and median home values topping $1 million.

Most retirees don't move, and the majority of those who do stay within 20 miles of their old homes, according to the latest data from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. They want to remain in their own homes and near to their family and friends as they age, said Stanford's Carstensen. And they may continue to work part-time or come in and out of retirement if they're able, she said.

"If you look at the boomer generation, they're the healthiest, best-educated people in the history of our country," she said. "I think we're going to see a lot of changes associated with them."

Many of the 78 million baby boomers born in the U.S. from 1946 to 1964 are at or approaching retirement age.

'Golden Age'

The group may have better prospects than future generations whether they live in wealthy or more modest communities, according to Anthony Webb, a research economist at the Center for Retirement Research. They're more likely to have traditional pensions in which employers guarantee income through retirement while younger workers are shifting to depending on 401(k) accounts that require managing one's own lifetime income, he said.

"The current retirees are living in somewhat of a golden age of retirement," Webb said.

Many older workers are far from affluent, according to a July report by the Center for Retirement Research. The typical household headed by a 55- to 64-year-old had $120,000 in combined 401(k) and individual retirement account savings in 2010, which would buy about $6,900 in annual income through a joint-and-survivor annuity.

Staying Put