Today I generated several worlds with different seeds using server version 1.7. I noticed that a village or other structures are generated approximately every 150 to 200 blocks.
In my opinion, this is far too much. Finding a village should be rare to very rare.

On the technical side: I deleted the world folder, set a new seed and then restarted the server.

I think this is the case, as well.
Also: Biome sizes are INCREDIBLY tiny like if you have a 16 chunk render distance and you fly up you can see no less than 20 different biomes.
Try to find an expansive desert, an expansive plains--they don't exist, every single biome is TINY.