Tired of strip malls and traffic, Robert Dietrich, 70, wanted something different for his retirement. After spending most of his life in Massapequa, N.Y., on the South Shore of Long Island, the former high school administrator yearned for “the country feel of the North Shore, with all the trees,” he said, and “a real town,” not a suburb with “no central location.”

He found that small-town ambience in Northport, a quaint waterfront village in the town of Huntington, in Suffolk County. In May 2016, Mr. Dietrich paid $489,000 for a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom ranch-style house with a two-car garage, on a 0.31-acre lot. A year later, having spent $100,000 to paint, refinish the floors, update the lighting and cabinets and landscape the property, he moved in, bringing along his 93-year-old mother, Edith Dietrich, of Seaford, in Nassau County, who was no longer able to live on her own.

“Because Northport is off the beaten path, it is a lot quieter,” Mr. Dietrich said. He walks to the library, church, shops, the supermarket and restaurants along Main Street.

In the morning, he takes a 10-minute stroll to the harbor, to sit near the water and read. “It is nice and quiet and pretty to watch the water,” he said.