The people who live across the street from my parents take it to a Hatfield v. McCoys type level.  

Ex. #1:

For Ronnie's birthday the "Hatfields" put up a vinyl banner which read "Happy 5th Birthday Ronnie"  Had a party tent and a petting zoo in their backyard.

3 weeks later Jeremy McCoy (these names are all made up by the way) has his 5th birthday.  Mr. and Mrs. McCoy have "Happy Birthday Jeremy" projected onto their home with a series of colored lights.  They too have a petting zoo.  They get two party tents, a full-size inflatable ball pit, and shuttle the kids to a nearby airport for helicopter rides.  (No joke my nephew was at both parties, said the helicopter ride was pretty sweet.)  Seeds of the feud are planted.

2.  Hatfield children play with the new girl across the street.  New girl's daddy has a tractor which they take rides on.  New girl's brother has PS3 which they play non-stop.  McCoy mom mentions to Hatfield mom that those children are "rough" and once "lived on a farm" and have no "refinement" (cause she obviously does).  McCoy mom will not let her children play with new kids and proceeds to buy a tractor (for absolutely no reason, they live on a .5 acre of land the only reason the other guy had it was because he owned a farm) and also buy a PS3, XBOX 360 and so on.  Hatfield children continue to play with new kids.  McCoy mother berates Hatfield mother in plain view of all neighbors.  Seeds of feud germinate, sprout and are in full flourish.

#3 (my favorite)  Christmas time.  McCoys decorate their house with traditional lights and some inflatable lawn ornaments.  A bit much but nothing really tasteless.  Hatfields decorate with lights, lawn ornaments, animated rooftop Santa and reindeer, multi-colored spotlights, and gift-wrapped garage doors.  McCoys counter with lawn ornament hilarity, grass is barely visible under an infinite number of Frosty's Rudolph's and Caroler Groups.  They purchase spotlights for the front of the house, and projector "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" onto each side of their house.  They cover the roof with an inordinate number of lights a la Clark Griswold.  Hatfields play the final hand, and its a doozy.  Also project several holiday greetings onto their home.  But the true gem was an inflatable lawn ornament, the equivalent of a Hollywood movie set.  We're talking full manger scene, Church behind that, Home in the distance, carolers on the sidewalk, complete with Christmas music, loud, repetitive Christmas music.  This decoration they put as close to the edge of their's and the McCoy's lawn so that the music would penetrate and echo in their living room, and they left the thing on all night and day.  They left it out on the lawn two weeks after New Year's.  The electric bill must have been through the roof, but I suppose the satisfaction of neighborhood victory was well worth it.

#4  McCoy's put their house up for sale.  This was two years ago.  They list it at the ridiculous price of $650K.  It is worth, at most $475K.  It was done just to get under their once friend's skin.  What maturity from those who can afford to play such a childish game.  The sad part of this story is that the 4 kids (2 for each family) who were once the best of friends now don't even speak. 

I sometimes in the evening as a second job post property for delinquent taxes, it is pretty obvious where people in subdivisions play the keeping up with the Jones, what a lot of folks don't realize is that the Jones' are up to their butt in debt too. I really don't try to keep up with anyone. I have a decent sound system that I use for some of the gigs I have with one of the bands. I guess if a neighbor gets an outdoor system and wants to show it off, it would be pretty cool to one up his arse with that and the lighting system I have. You know, have a mini-Woodstock at my next BBQ. I probably won't do it, I wouldn't want anyone thinking I have a syndrome with my winkie.

Excellent poll!!!   I know of a couple of neighbors like this, but I don't get caught up in any of it.  

It reminds me of an old saying about people who buy the biggest, baddest, best stuff to impress people--  "it dosen't show that you have money, it shows that you HAD money"

I know people like that.  It's kind of fun to watch one try to outdo the other.

Another installment of the Chronicles of Podunk:

This whole town is like that! The first question people ask is "So, where do you live?" If you have ever been to Podunk, you'd know what I mean. It's "In" town ("oh, we used to live there") or "across the interstate" (yeah, all the "we used to be townies" now live "over there"...gimme a break!

I have learned the hard life lesson that bigger/better is not worth your life being in shambles.