We closed on a new CYV nine years ago this July 5th. We live fulltime, our block has 13 villas and five owners have been here since the beginning, three have died, and five have been resold. One unit has been resold 4 times, snowbirds were the first three buyers and the latest is now fulltime. Of the 13 villas, three are snowbirds and 10 are fulltime.
As to sound, buy a masonry villa, I have a 75" TV and one of the loudest surround sound systems you'll see in a home, and when I play live music videos the sound cannot be heard outside in the front or the backyard.
The biggest negative is the garage is too small, of course recent villas have been built with two car garages. Our community which opened in 2011 and has 80 units, does not have one villa with a two car garage, everyone has a 1-1/2 car garage. I fit a small SUV and my golf cart in the garage, but for a time I had a Camaro that was 5" wider than the current car and I had to back in the cart to give me enough space for both.
The backyard is fantastic, it's like our own private sanctuary. We feed the birds, we put out grapes 3 or 4 times a day, have a bird feeder that we keep filled with safflower seed (black birds and squirrels do not like safflower seeds). We have two mockingbirds that watch over our yard. We moved the holly tree from the front to the back when we had the landscape redone in front, the tree has grown to 25' high and the mockingbird sits atop the tree all day. They are very territorial, and I've even them chase a hawk out of our yard by divebombing him. We also have two red cardinals, and 2 brown cardinals and 3 brown thrashers that live in the hedge of our backyard.
The neighbor accessing the backyard is a 2 way street. I bought a new grill yesterday, so I had go onto my neighbors driveway to reach my gate and move the grill to the backyard. No big deal, in fact he was in his garage and it gave me a chance to talk to him. He just had Doc's Restorations gut the entire inside of his home and redo everything. He actually moved out for two months while everything was getting done. He's the new owner had three previous snowbirds came and went in the home. He's here now fulltime and has his home perfect. My backyard, that home's owner has asked about 3 times in 9 years to come into my gate and spray for bugs on the outside of his home. Otherwise I have a lock on the gate and no one comes in or out my backyard without my approval. Most homes on my block have their gate locked. Some kept it unlocked when they landscapers cut the grass, not knowing when they might arrive. Ourselves along with most others have had the grass removed and have a fairly maintenance free yard now, something that only villas can do. I keep a small patch of grass in the back for the birds, which I maintain myself with a weed-eater.
This is our backyard, that hedge was actually small holly bushes that were 2' tall in 2011. Now they are 7' tall, I trim them twice a year so they stay at wall height. The birds love living in the hedge. I would not live in anything other than a courtyard villa in TV.
To show you how each backyard can be unique, this backyard is the corner lot four doors down from me. To give you an idea of prices, this home sold new for $225K in 2011. That owner added the pool and birdcage from T&D for $62,000. The home resold last year for $400,000 even.