For some Lakewood residents, home appraisal valuations put an even bigger strain on the cost of homeownership. There's no real reason to fight city hall unless a new bond package or city budget calls for property tax increases. Residents can fight the Dallas Central Appraisal District.

They can try. For some, it's akin to tilting at windmills.

"I fought them so many times, [for] so many years. If one house sells for a certain price, they hike the price of others. It's pure conjecture. They just slap a value on it," said Wilshire Heights resident Susan Nelson, who also is a Dallas Realtor.

A senior vice president at Ellen Terry Realtors, Nelson is a 17-year veteran of the real estate business.

According to Nelson, the process of assessing an appraisal value to a residential home in the increasingly popular Lakewood enclave is mystical. While some residents with homes in the neighborhood receive new assessed valuations yearly, other homeowners do not — even if they live in the same general vicinity, said Nelson.

"It's capricious and arbitrary. I wish I had the cajones to get a class-action suit. Fair is fair; unfair is unfair."