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.

The term "aging in place" refers to the millions of seniors who would rather remain in their longtime homes than pull up stakes and move -- whether to a warmer climate or closer to their children. And certainly no one wants to go into a nursing home, some of which are more like storage boxes where people wait to die than actual homes.

To most people, aging in place means mostly that they'll have to modify their homes in some fashion so their remaining years will be comfortable. Perhaps a ramp to accommodate a wheelchair, or turning that little-used dining room into a first-floor master bedroom to avoid climbing stairs. Or maybe it simply involves changing the doorknobs to handles so they'll be easier to use.

These are all real estate-related functions, and can usually be accomplished by licensed remodeling contractors or possibly even a local handyman. But as seniors age in their homes, they often realize that they need assistance beyond reconfiguring their houses: with things like transportation, maintenance, health care, cooking and financial resources.

Enter the National Aging in Place Council (NAICP), an alliance of in-home aging services providers that run the gamut from builders, lenders and businesses to senior organizations and government agencies. Presently, there are 25 NAIPC chapters nationally, but the group is expanding rapidly, says Executive Director Marty Bell.

The council's growth coincides with a report this month from the Government Accountability Office that calls on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to do more to connect senior residents to supportive services. The report refers specifically to HUD's Section 202 "housing for the elderly" program. But the need goes well beyond that, says Peter Bell, Marty's younger brother and a longtime association executive who operates several trade groups, including NAIPC.

Surprisingly, the NAICP was created as an offshoot of the reverse mortgage business, another trade organization that the Bells manage. Reverse mortgages are loans that allow seniors to cash out the equity they have in their homes. They can use that money to make modifications to their houses, pay their bills and otherwise live comfortably as they age.

But for one reason or another, many elderly people, after taking years to pay off their first mortgages, don't want to encumber their houses once again. Maybe they want to leave their homes mortgage-free to their kids. Perhaps they don't have enough equity to make a reverse mortgage worthwhile, or maybe they simply can't qualify.

There's nothing wrong with shunning another loan. But if you want to live independently in your home for your remaining years, you have to plan for it.

"If you don't plan, you are going to run into trouble," says Peter Bell. "It's one thing to live on your own in your 70s, but another thing in your 80s and something else again in your 90s."

Unfortunately, that's the exact opposite of the way most of us operate. "We have a habit as a society of waiting for an emergency before we take action," says Marty Bell.

NAIPC's goal is to be a one-stop shop in every community where seniors and their loved ones can easily find the assistance they need -- from the local version of Meals on Wheels to geriatric medical care. In Charleston, South Carolina, and Atlanta, for example, the local chapters list more than 50 different in-home services local residents can access. Resources can be found at ageinplace.org.

All members of local chapters are vetted and screened to make sure they are legitimate. They agree to background checks, are interviewed by local leadership and sign a Code of Conduct in which they pledge to put their clients' needs ahead of their own. That should allay any fears of inviting strangers into your home, a concern that often intensifies as people age.

"As an organization," Marty Bell says, "NAIPC is trying to shift the conversation from explaining aging in place to helping people age in place." He said he sees the industry becoming "a department store, if you will, where one counter offers a choice of caregivers, another lists transportation options, a third provides food delivery options and a fourth lists options to make your home easier to navigate."

In an effort to get aging adults to start thinking about their own situations, the Council has developed "Act III: Your Plan for Aging in Place," a toolkit to help people start thinking about their own situations. What do they have now and what will they need in the future?

The 24-page document takes about an hour to complete, but it is time well spent. Covering key areas like housing, health, finance, transportation, social interaction, education and entertainment, it walks seniors through the essential concerns necessary to sustain a safe and secure lifestyle in their homes.

The NAICP is also collaborating with the School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook University in New York to develop a college course to teach social work students how to become aging-in-place specialists. And by the middle of next year, it expects to have in place a home-assistance hotline for round-the-clock advice and assistance.

For now, the Act III toolkit is available at no cost at ageinplace.org.