Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Real Estate and Capitalized Interest (Details)

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Real Estate and Capitalized Interest (Details) (USD $)
In Thousands, unless otherwise specified
Sep. 30, 2012
Dec. 31, 2011
Real Estate Properties    
Homes under contract under construction $ 205,616 [1] $ 101,445 [1]
Unsold homes, completed and under construction 98,354 [1] 97,246 [1]
Model homes 55,853 [1] 49,892 [1]
Finished home sites and home sites under development 524,842 441,242
Land held for development 54,981 [2] 55,143 [2]
Land held for sale 24,619 29,908
Communities in mothball status 40,560 [3] 40,549 [3]
Real estate $ 1,004,825 $ 815,425
[1] Includes the allocated land and land development costs associated with each lot for these homes.
[2] Land held for development primarily reflects land and land development costs related to land where development activity is not currently underway but is expected to begin in the future. In these cases, we may have chosen not to currently develop certain land holdings as they typically represent a portion of a large land parcel that we plan to build out over several years.
[3] Represents communities where we have decided to cease operations (mothball) as we have determined that their economic performance would be maximized by deferring development. In the future, some of these communities may be re-opened while others may be sold to third parties. If we deem our carrying value to not be fully recoverable, we adjust our carrying value for these assets to fair value at the time they are placed into mothball status. As of September 30, 2012, we had three mothballed communities with a carrying value of $11.2 million in our West Region and eight mothballed communities with a carrying value of $29.4 million in our Central Region. During the nine months ended September 30, 2012, we did not place any additional communities into mothball status. We do not capitalize interest for such mothballed assets, and all ongoing costs of land ownership (i.e. property taxes, homeowner association dues, etc.) are also expensed as incurred.