Millions of consumers are in for a big surprise in the coming months.

For some, the surprise will be good news; for others, not so good. Perhaps even devastating. And they don't appear to be prepared.

Let's start with the latter group, which consists of homeowners who have home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, and are about to get the shock of their lives.

Over the next few years, some 3 million homeowners with HELOCs have to say goodbye to making minimum, interest-only payments on their lines of credit, according to the RealtyTrac wing of Attom Data Solutions. Some loans allowed owners to stick to those minimum payments for up to 10 years. But soon, the piper will come calling, and they'll be required to start paying down their principal, as well as paying interest on their remaining balances.

According to a poll of 800 homeowners with HELOCs by TD Bank, 4 out of 5 do not realize they are going to get a financial kick in the pants in the form of an increase in their monthly payments.

More shocking stats: One-third of borrowers who opened HELOCs prior to 2011 are unaware of when their loans roll over from interest-only payments to interest-and-principal payments, even thought the date is right there in their loan papers. And more than half who took out a line of credit between 2005 and 2008 don't know what the impact will be when their HELOC "D-Day" comes around.

But here, perhaps, is the topper: Among those who do know a reset is coming, 1 out of 3 actually think their payments will go down, not up. Good luck with that!

Fortunately, there's still time to stave off a disaster. Dig out your loan papers, look for the rollover date and start working on how to handle the pending increase in your payments.

"It's important that HELOC borrowers plan ahead and review their contracts to determine the best course of action based on their current and future financial situations," says Mike Kinane, a vice president with TD Bank. If you are unsure what to do, or if it looks as though you might be buried under higher HELOC payments, contact your lender right away, Kinane says. "A responsible lender will offer multiple ways for you to pay down your line of credit."

According to the survey, more than a quarter of the respondents plan to refinance into another loan, perhaps another HELOC. But there are other options, including rolling the unpaid balance into your first mortgage.

There's nothing wrong with HELOCs. They are a good and flexible way to pay for home improvements, to consolidate debt, to pay for Jimmy and Jenna's educations or deal with unexpected expenses. But you have to know when the inevitable is coming and get ready for it.

Now, on to the good news. It involves former homeowners who went through tough times when the housing market crashed in 2008. They lost their homes through short sales, foreclosures or bankruptcies.

That black mark remains in their credit records for seven years. But between now and June of next year, the pock will fall away for some 2.5 million people.

Given what these folks went through, there's no telling whether they will ever test the housing waters again. But if they do decide to take the plunge, the latest analysis from Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, shows that two-thirds of them are scoring in the near-prime or higher credit segments.

In other words, should these folk decide to become "boomerang buyers," their chances are good they'll find it much easier to qualify for financing.

"The trends that we're seeing are promising for both the mortgage seeker and the lender," says Experian's Michele Raneri. "While many of these borrowers have gone through a very difficult time, it is encouraging to see them taking control of their finances with better credit scores and all-around better credit management."

In some quarters, "boomerangers" are expected to be an important segment of the housing market in the years ahead. But some will never, ever own a home again, and a small minority never should have become owners in the first place.

Some, though, have already re-enlisted, and according to the Experian study, most are showing responsible credit behaviors, have improved their credit scores and are current on their debts.

Zip lines, velodromes and children-designed play areas are among the hot new amenities uncovered by the John Burns Real Estate Consulting firm in its annual census of master-planned communities.

A 377-foot zip line can be found at Nocatee in Ponte Vedra, Florida, near Jacksonville. Part of the community's Splash Water Park, the high wire allows residents to soar from a tower to the park's lawn, gliding above the lazy river and sand volleyball courts along the way. At a speed of nearly 40 miles per hour, it's a hoot.

Perhaps an even bigger thrill ride is the velodrome at Riverwalk, a 1,000-acre project on the Catawba River in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Intended to introduce residents to the Olympic sport of track cycling, the 250-meter bike course is endorsed by USA Cycling and hosts top-caliber racing events. For the less adventurous, there are the practically prerequisite nature trails, as well as a canoe/kayak launch.

At Eastmark in Mesa, Arizona, kids helped design a dream "playscape" known as the Orange Monster. The climbing park features a pair of tandem pipe sculptures connected with almost a half-acre of netting. While the park encourages exercise, the community developer goes one better by giving away a cruiser bicycle with every new home "to promote a healthy and active lifestyle."

With a similar mind toward outdoor family fun, the developer at Viera on Florida's Space Coast donated 56 acres to the then-fledgling Brevard Zoo back in 1991. The facility is now a world-class, fully interactive zoo, home to more than 650 animals from 165 species.

Across the state in Wesley Chapel, Florida, the developer of the Epperson community is hoping their investment will pay off just as well: Any day now, they'll be breaking ground on one of the country's first residential "crystal lagoons." The seven-acre man-made pool will hold 16 million gallons of water -- a staggering amount, but still less water than it takes to maintain a typical Florida golf course -- and will be surrounded by white sand beaches. Hundreds of sensors along the pool's plastic-like lining will help self-clean the giant lake.

Among the other hot new amenties found in the Burns survey are a 200-step outdoor staircase where residents of the Meadows in Denver can get a serious workout, and a golden retriever who welcomes residents at Cane Island in Houston.

According to the marketing and research firm, the 50 best-selling master-planned properties -- it surveyed 230 -- accounted for nearly 5 percent of all new home sales last year. Nocatee was the third-best seller; Eastmark, the eighth.

In the multifamily sector, meanwhile, developers are creating more than just a temporary living space, says Kristen Gucwa, vice president of national lease-up operations at Richman Signature Properties. "We are designing rental properties that convey the feeling of a home as opposed to the traditional apartment rental."

At the Connecticut-based company's communities in Florida, Colorado and Texas, residents enjoy a variety of creature comforts, including pools, cabanas, 24/7 fitness centers, business centers, and dog parks with pet spas.

Also, with a 60-day notice, residents of one Richman property can relocate to another Richman community during their lease without penalty and without paying an application fee at the new place. "We see our residents as long-term family members," says Gucwa.

Rooftop dog parks, one with its own dog wash, are the hot amenity in Washington, D.C.'s booming inner-city market, where one report says 40 percent of renters have dogs. Most places charge tenants an initial fee to have a four-legged friend; some add a stipend to the monthly rent.

When it come to single-family residences, it's no secret that homes got larger in the years following the recession, largely because well-heeled buyers were the only ones who could qualify for financing under the ultra-strict post-recession underwriting guidelines.

Now, with lenders finally loosening their purse strings, the size of houses is trending down. Even so, of the houses built last year, more than a third had three or more full bathrooms, and 10 percent had four or more.

As for kitchen trends, granite is by far the most popular countertop, according to the National Association of Home Builders and design platform Houzz. Nearly two-thirds of all buyers pick granite over laminate and solid-surface materials. For appliances, stainless steel is the most popular finish. Just 6 percent of buyers go with black appliances, and 4 percent stick with white.

People die in their homes all the time. Many pass from natural causes. But others go more violently -- a suicide, perhaps, or even a murder.

If that thought makes you skittish when shopping for a new home, there are a couple of spooky online tools to help you out find out if someone met their demise in a place you're considering. One is the "Death in Home" feature at HomeDisclosure.com; the other, DiedInHouse.com.

While real estate agents are often instructed to disclose when a death has occurred in a property, only three states -- Alaska, California and South Dakota -- require them to do so.

In California, sellers and their agents don't have to disclose the death if it happened more than three years ago. But if a would-be buyer asks about a death that occurred at any time, even long ago, the seller has to respond truthfully. In Alaska and South Dakota, only murders or suicides must be disclosed, and only if they happened within the past year.

Because things are less black-and-white in other states, many agents adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude about the subject.

Of course, some buyers don't care. They find it silly to even consider such ghostly goings-on. But many others want nothing to do with these "ghastly" properties. And there are plenty of those properties, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, the parent company of HomeDisclosure. More than you might think.

More than 40,000 currently vacant single-family properties nationwide are owned by someone who is deceased, ATTOM reports.

In five Chicago-area ZIP codes, there are a total of 324 potentially haunted houses. But the prize goes to ZIP code 46407 in Lake County, Indiana, where one in every 41 houses could be occupied by the specter of the former owner. The kids should have a field day there this Halloween.

The Death in Home feature at HomeDisclosure "fits with our philosophy of providing as much information as possible about a property," says ATTOM Chief Economist Daren Blomquist, "particularly when that information may affect the value in the buyer's eyes."

The information was something the realty data company's customers had been asking for, according to Blomquist. But there has been some pushback from agents who think it's something would-be buyers don't really need to know about. "What's next?" asked an agent on a real estate website. "(Asking) 'Did someone fart in the house?'"

DiedinHouse was created by Roy Condrey, who was inspired when one of his tenants texted him in the middle of the night to ask if he knew his house was haunted.

Condrey wasn't able to find any proof one way or the other that the house had been the site of any kind of fatality. But the South Carolina software designer did learn that a death in a house is not regarded as a "material defect" in most places, and therefore need not be disclosed. His search also revealed dozens of others asking the same question about their houses, or the ones they were thinking about buying.

He also found many cases in which people who bought places in which someone had died were now uncomfortable with the idea. And he was less than thrilled with the advice he found about trying to determine such things before committing to a 30-year mortgage: Most advice consisted of "ask the agent, seller, neighbors and/or local government agencies." That didn't cut it for Condrey.

"The process is easier said then done, not to mention very time-consuming," he said. So he created a site that gathers data from more than 130 million police records, news reports and death certificates, among other sources.

HomeDisclosure's Death in Home report costs $9.99 --it's the only part of the site's report that has a fee, due to the added expense necessary to collect the data. At DiedInHouse, one search runs $11.99.