My lot size is .09 of an acre. My house and the neighbors house are perhaps 8 feet from one another. Thankfully, I cannot hear them.
We live in a master plan community, but in the cheaper homes...you know, no gate guard. With that, there are quite a few renters. Neighbors come and go. We lived in this house since my older daughter was in high school and she never made friends in the neighborhood. My younger daughter has been in the same house for all of her life (8 yrs). She doesn't have any life long friends in the neighborhood. She had two besties and one moved to Hawaii recently and the other lives about 7 miles away and goes to a different school. She sees her in summer camp and we still get together for bowling or movies from time to time. Yes, we drive.
Because there weren't any friends in the neighborhood, we put her in figure skating and got her heavily involved in skating. She has been on the ice for 3 years now. Many of the girls she skates with are her good friends. She also plays hockey, so she is on the ice nearly every day during the summer and about 4 days during school months.
There are three homes on our street that have children. The twins are 3 years older and they never come out to play. They go to her school. The little girl across the street was home schooled and she used to not ever come out, but recently comes out and rides bikes with my daughter. She is 4 years older. There is one more home with children and now they come out to play. They have been here for 2.5 years now and the mother would never let them come out.
The grass is not always greener.