Credit Facility, Loans Payable, Senior Notes, Senior Subordinated Notes and Mortgage Company Warehouse Loan (Details Textual) (USD $)	12 Months Ended																	12 Months Ended
	Oct. 31, 2011	Oct. 31, 2010	Oct. 22, 2010	Oct. 31, 2011 6.875% Senior Notes due November 15, 2012 [Member]	Nov. 22, 2002 6.875% Senior Notes due November 15, 2012 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 5.95% Senior Notes due September 15, 2013 [Member]	Sep. 03, 2003 5.95% Senior Notes due September 15, 2013 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 4.95% Senior Notes due March 15, 2014 [Member]	Mar. 16, 2004 4.95% Senior Notes due March 15, 2014 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 5.15% Senior Notes due May 15, 2015 [Member]	Jun. 02, 2005 5.15% Senior Notes due May 15, 2015 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 8.91% Senior Notes due October 15, 2017 [Member]	Apr. 13, 2009 8.91% Senior Notes due October 15, 2017 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 6.75% Senior Notes due November 1, 2019 [Member]	Sep. 22, 2009 6.75% Senior Notes due November 1, 2019 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 8.25% Senior Subordinated Notes due December 2011 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 8 1/4% Senior Subordinated Notes due February 2011 [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 Mortgage Loan Facility [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 New credit facility [Member]	Oct. 22, 2010 New credit facility [Member] Bank	Oct. 31, 2011 Mortgage Credit Facility [Member]	Oct. 22, 2010 Term loan facility [Member]	Oct. 22, 2010 Unsecured revolving credit facility [Member]
Line of Credit Facility [Line Items]
Revolving credit facility maximum borrowing Amount																				$ 885,000,000	$ 50,000,000	$ 331,700,000	$ 1,890,000,000
Revolving credit given by number of banks																				12
Revolving credit facility outstanding	113,200,000	0	140,100,000																100,300,000
Outstanding letter of credit																			100,300,000
Line of Credit Facility, Interest Rate During Period																			2.75%
Maximum permissible leverage ratio																			1.75 to 1.00
Minimum Net Worth Required for Compliance																			1,870,000,000
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Interest rate on notes	3.99%	3.75%		6.875%	6.875%	5.95%	5.95%	4.95%	4.95%	5.15%	5.15%	8.91%	8.91%	6.75%	6.75%	8.25%	8.25%
Interest rate on loan commitments in addition to LIBOR																		1.25%
Interest rate range, minimum	0.16	0.0050																0.0350
Debt Instrument, Maturity Date																		Jul. 25, 2012
Additional Credit Facility Loans Payable Senior Notes Senior Subordinated Notes and Mortgage Company Warehouse Loan (Textual) [Abstract]
Existing leverage ratio	0.19 to 1.00
Tangible net worth	2,520,000,000
Ability to pay dividend and repurchase common stock	655,000,000
Commitment fee		0.50%
Percentage owned subsidiary of the parent company	100.00%
Mortgage Loan Facility Maximum Borrowing Capacity Increased		75,000,000
Outstanding amount under the Repurchase Agreement included liabilities	57,409,000	72,367,000
Mortgage loans receivable	63,175,000	93,644,000
Aggregate outstanding purchase price limitations	$ 0