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Real Estate and Capitalized Interest (Tables) | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2012
Inventory Disclosure [Abstract] |
Real estate properties |
|  | December 31, 2012 |  | December 31, 2011
Homes under contract under construction (1) |  | $ | 192,948 |  |  | $ | 101,445 |
Unsold homes, completed and under construction (1) |  | 107,466 |  |  | 97,246 |
Model homes (1) |  | 62,411 |  |  | 49,892 |
Finished home sites and home sites under development |  | 634,106 |  |  | 441,242 |
Land held for development (2) |  | 56,118 |  |  | 55,143 |
Land held for sale |  | 21,650 |  |  | 29,908 |
Communities in mothball status (3) |  | 38,488 |  |  | 40,549 |
|  | $ | 1,113,187 |  |  | $ | 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 December 31, 2012, we had eight mothballed communities with a carrying value of $35.1 million in our West Region and two mothballed communities with a carrying value of $3.4 million in our Central Region. During the 2012, we did not place any additional communities into mothball status and we removed one community and $2.0 million out of 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.
Real-estate and joint venture impairment charges |
|  | Years Ended December 31,
|  | 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2010
Terminated option/purchase contracts: |  |  |  |  |  |
West |  | $ | 217 |  |  | $ | 863 |  |  | $ | — |
Central |  | 129 |  |  | 1,904 |  |  | 1,030 |
East |  | — |  |  | — |  |  | — |
Total |  | $ | 346 |  |  | $ | 2,767 |  |  | $ | 1,030 |
Real estate inventory impairments (1): |  |  |  |  |  |
West |  | $ | 732 |  |  | $ | 4,542 |  |  | $ | 1,930 |
Central |  | 90 |  |  | 865 |  |  | 3,153 |
East |  | 172 |  |  | 696 |  |  | 321 |
Total |  | $ | 994 |  |  | $ | 6,103 |  |  | $ | 5,404 |
Impairments of joint venture investments: |  |  |  |  |  |
West |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | 295 |
Central |  | — |  |  | — |  |  | — |
East |  | — |  |  | — |  |  | — |
Total |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | 295 |
Impairments of land held for sale: |  |  |  |  |  |
West |  | $ | 669 |  |  | $ | 5,928 |  |  | $ | — |
Central |  | — |  |  | 127 |  |  | 17 |
East |  | — |  |  | 399 |  |  | — |
Total |  | $ | 669 |  |  | $ | 6,454 |  |  | $ | 17 |
Total impairments: |  |  |  |  |  |
West |  | $ | 1,618 |  |  | $ | 11,333 |  |  | $ | 2,225 |
Central |  | 219 |  |  | 2,896 |  |  | 4,200 |
East |  | 172 |  |  | 1,095 |  |  | 321 |
Total |  | $ | 2,009 |  |  | $ | 15,324 |  |  | $ | 6,746 |
(1) | Included in the real estate inventory impairments are impairments of individual homes in a community where the underlying community was not also impaired, as follows (in thousands):
|  | Years Ended December 31,
|  | 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2010
Individual home impairments: |  |  |  |  |  |
West |  | $ | 732 |  |  | $ | 1,134 |  |  | $ | 1,535 |
Central |  | 90 |  |  | 715 |  |  | 1,651 |
East |  | 172 |  |  | 341 |  |  | 321 |
Total |  | $ | 994 |  |  | $ | 2,190 |  |  | $ | 3,507 |
Number of communities with real estate inventory impairments & fair value of these communities |
|  | Number of Communities Impaired |  | Impairment Charges |  | Fair Value of Communities Impaired (Carrying Value less Impairments)
|  | Year Ended December 31, 2011
West |  | 7 |  |  | $ | 3,408 |  |  | $ | 27,621 |
Central |  | 6 |  |  | 150 |  |  | 9,446 |
East |  | 1 |  |  | 355 |  |  | 2,006 |
Total |  | 14 |  |  | $ | 3,913 |  |  | $ | 39,073 |
|  | Year Ended December 31, 2010
West |  | 1 |  |  | $ | 395 |  |  | 5,122 |
Central |  | 6 |  |  | 1,502 |  |  | 7,951 |
East |  | — |  |  | — |  |  | N/A |
Total |  | 7 |  |  | $ | 1,897 |  |  | $ | 13,073 |
Summary of capitalized interest |
|  | Years Ended December 31,
|  | 2012 |  | 2011
Capitalized interest, beginning of year |  | $ | 14,810 |  |  | $ | 11,679 |
Interest incurred |  | 46,135 |  |  | 43,393 |
Interest expensed |  | (24,244 | ) |  | (30,399 | )
Interest amortized to cost of home, land closings and impairments |  | (15,101 | ) |  | (9,863 | )
Capitalized interest, end of year (1) |  | $ | 21,600 |  |  | $ | 14,810 |
(1) | Approximately $539,000 and $750,000 of the capitalized interest is related to our joint venture investments and is a component of “Investments in unconsolidated entities” in our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively.

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