Keeping up with the Joneses: a look into my neighborhood's dependent featuress

I've been working at home since May, which helps give me a bit more free time. In the morning, instead of commuting and packing my lunch, I spend my time blogging, managing my finances, and leisurely sipping my coffee, all while watching my wife hurry out the door to brave her daily commute (such a shame). I tell you, it's the way of the future! My favorite part of the day is my lunch hour when I take the dog on a walk around the neighborhood...

As I walk around the same 1-1/2-mile loop, I play a little game. I try and identify similarities with my neighbors' houses that are in close proximity of one another. This started when I realized that only five houses in the whole loop (out of more than 100 total) had an outdoor basketball hoop. And four out of those five were right next to or across the street from each other.

If you ever read the The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell, you know that he discusses the lifecycle of viral trends -- iPods, Hushpuppy sneakers, and even those 80s wrist-slap bracelets -- most of which start because of an undeniably cool new idea/technology or because of a wildly unique and auspicious trend had been started. The book mentions that most fashion trends are started by the hipsters in New York and L.A where the technology trends come from Japan or the Silicon Valley. But what if a trend isn't necessarily viral? What if it's not particularly cool and wasn't started by a highly visible hipster with an appetite for ironic fashion? What if it was contained to, let's say, a small neighborhood in North Carolina? When I look around, I see that decorative copycats are all around me...

Everyone is different, and for the most part is able to operate independently and making their own decisions. But we can't deny the subtle influence our immediate surroundings provide us; 'Keeping up with the Joneses' is a very real thing. As we look to decorate and maintain our homes, many of us (especially me) have no idea what we're doing and rely on getting ideas from someone else.

Consider the following list of home features in my neighborhood, its premise being that the a home having the feature depends greatly on the number of neighboring houses with the same or a similar feature. All of the items on this list are features that had been controlled by the homeowner, not the original developer (so two-car garages, large picture window, etc will not be listed). The list is ordered by strength of dependency (higher on the list = more dependent on neighbors; lower = less dependent on neighbors).

1. Lack of a fenced-in back yard -- About 15 percent of homes in my neighborhood do not have a back yard fence. With almost no exceptions, those homes are in three separate clusters.
2. Front yard flagpoles (those mounted in the ground, not on a vertical surface)
3. Basketball hoop
4. Pergolas (you know, those sort of 'fake' roofs that are meant to provide shade rather than cover)
   
5. 'Edged' line between grass and pavement (it's clear who uses an edger and who doesn't) -- I'm assuming that this is dependent because neighbors borrow each others' tools.
6. Mulch around bushes
7. The color of mulch around bushes
8. Unkept lawn -- I assume that if you witness your neighbor not keeping up with his or her lawn maintenance, you're less likely to keep up with yours
9. Pickup truck
10. Uncommon trees
11. Landscaping bricks

There are also some common features in my neighborhood that seem to have no dependency on neighbors. These features are pools and proper yard maintenance. I assume that neighbors are likely to share pools and maintain their yards (unless of course their neighbors have 'given up,' in which case they are more likely to give up).

What kind of decorative dependancies do you see in your neighborhood?