EA were talking about the neighbourhood editor when they first revealed that there would only be one hood in the new game but I noticed they didn't mention it after 3 months or so before release. I guessed then they'd changed their mind. If they do release it, I would guess they would charge for it or release it as an EP - "NEW, you can now edit your own neighbourhoods! Give us yet more of your hard-earned money (or that of your parent's) for something that should have been in the game when it was released! And don't forget the Sims Store guys." Lame.
I noticed that too. When they announced the game was no longer going to be released in February, but rather in June, all talk about releasing a tool to edit neighborhoods stopped.
If we don't get the tool in either World Adventures or by years end, I doubt we will get it at all. But with all the negative feeling towards World Adventures on the BBS, and all the people who want a tool to make/edit neighborhoods, watch EA put that in WA as a new feature just to get people to buy it.