WHEN the nation’s baby boomers began signing up for Social Security benefits this month, the news was full of lamentations about the stress the generation would put on the federal pension system over the next 20 years.
That worry, however, turns into glowing optimism when you talk to officials of small college towns like Boulder, Colo., and Bloomington, Ind. That’s because such towns — are likely destinations for retiring boomers and their money.
It’s clear that the 76 million members of this generation are not going to be ordinary retirees. 

Surveys by AARP and others have shown that they are much more willing to move to a new place late in life than their parents were. Famous for their self-indulgent tastes and meager savings, members of the baby boom generation are also expected to gravitate to places that are less stressful and less expensive than the cities where many have spent their working years. At the same time many will want to continue working in some fashion.
As the AARP Magazine has pointed out, boomers are a demanding, some might say spoiled, generation. One of the magazine’s surveys found that boomers sought places with a “youthful vibe,” great medical facilities, cultural and educational opportunities, and sophisticated restaurants — not your conventional retirement community. 

Because of their desire to keep working, if part time and on their own terms, boomers are also attracted to areas with strong economies. College towns, for example. 

That fit is not lost on the towns, many of which are beginning or stepping up efforts to lure retirees. 

One of the most successful is Oxford, Miss., home of the University of Mississippi. Recent retirees who have moved there and to other college towns illustrate the reason for their attraction.

Since 1993, Oxford, a town of 18,000, and surrounding Lafayette County have attracted more than 600 retiree households, drawn mainly by the university and its 14,000 students. Christy Knapp, director of a retiree attraction program sponsored by the Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation, said, “Without the University of Mississippi, we would be just another lovely Southern town, and there are hundreds of those.”
It also helps that the cost of living in Oxford is 15 percent below the national average, according to BestPlaces.net, a Web site that allows users to compare cities and towns around the country. The median price of a home is $222,500, compared with, say, San Francisco’s $745,000. The state also does not tax income from Social Security or most pensions.

Terry and Charlene Ott moved to Oxford in 2003 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where they had been retired for four years. Mr. Ott, 66, is a former sales manager for Northwest Airlines; Mrs. Ott, 67, worked in sales and marketing for hotels.

Though the house they built in Oxford is larger than the one they had in Fort Lauderdale, their annual property taxes dropped to $800 from $1,400. 
The main draw, though, they said, was Ole Miss. The Otts each have part-time jobs at the university, where they help business-school students with career planning. 

Mr. Ott, who writes two monthly columns for the local newspaper, The Oxford Eagle, took a journalism course at Ole Miss. Like many colleges and universities, the University of Mississippi gives a break to retirees, allowing them to take one free course a semester. It also offers noncredit continuing education classes.

Mr. Ott cited the university’s influence on the town. “Our research indicated that college towns generally have an above-average standard of living and better health and medical care,” he said. He also cited the attraction of college football and other sports.

The Otts — he was born in Elkhart, Ind., she in Buffalo — said they had no trouble adjusting to Oxford. “One of the reasons we fit in so well here is that 17 percent of the university’s students are international,” he said. “Add the faculty, and you get an interesting population mix. But we have also made friends with people who were born and raised here. They have accepted us Yankees.”

Another university town that is climbing in popularity among retirees is Manhattan, Kan., where the median price of a home is just under $175,000.
Jeff Chapman, the chairman of Retire to the Flint Hills, part of the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, said the town of 45,000, situated in the northeast part of the state, had attracted 50 to 100 retirees in the last five years. “Kansas State University is a huge factor in our efforts,” he said, “because we initially targeted K-State alumni.”

Don and Bea Rasmussen moved to Manhattan from Houston in June after receiving an information packet from Mr. Chapman’s committee. Mr. Rasmussen, 66, a retired chemical engineer, graduated from Kansas State in 1958; the couple had been living in Houston since his retirement 10 years ago. 
“We wanted a slower pace,” Mr. Rasmussen said. “We wanted to get away from all that traffic and the increasing crime rate.”

Some college towns do not have to try very hard to attract retirees. Durango, a mountain resort of 14,000 in the southwestern corner of Colorado and the home of Fort Lewis College, is a magnet because it has a reputation as a nice place to live, said  Katie Ogier, a real estate agent there. Durango is also more expensive than some towns: the median price of a house is just under $600,000.

In 2005 Ron Martin, a finishing contractor in San Diego, bought a Durango town house for $300,000. He plans to move there next spring, when he is 51, for a combination of retirement and work, and until then is renting out the house. 

While the area’s beauty and recreational opportunities enticed him, he said there was another big factor.

“A town this small would be very incomplete if it didn’t have something like a college,” he said.