Real Estate and Tangible Water Assets (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Real Estate and Tangible Water Assets [Line Items]
Real estate and improvements	$ 9,477	$ 9,694
Residential real estate and home construction inventories	382,219	362,056
Other real estate inventories completed or under development	5,207	9,971
Tangible water assets	42,498	42,514
Total real estate and tangible water assets	439,401	424,235
Accumulated depreciation	11,996	11,778
Loss on real estate	2,397	274
Real estate	$ 5,600
CALIFORNIA
Real Estate and Tangible Water Assets [Line Items]
Loss on real estate		274
Real estate		3,400
UCP
Real Estate and Tangible Water Assets [Line Items]
Loss on real estate		923
Real estate		$ 6,000

Improvements to Real Estate, Accumulated Amortization

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- Definition

Inventory, Real Estate, Residential

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Real estate and water assets include the cost of water rights, water in storage, real estate, including raw land and real estate being developed and any real estate improvements. Costs to develop real estate and water assets are capitalized. Water rights consist of water acquired or developed independently or in conjunction with the acquisition of real estate. Water in storage includes the direct construction costs to build a water storage site.

+ References

No definition available.

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[Line Items] for Real Estate and Tangible Water Assets [Table]

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- Definition

Water and Water Rights

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

The charge against earnings in the period to reduce the carrying amount of real property to fair value.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 360
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64862545&loc=d3e2921-110230

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 230
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 28
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=66902209&loc=d3e3602-108585

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- Definition

Total of (1) improvements, (2) held-for-sale, (3) land and land under development, (4) construction-in-process, (5) mortgage loans held-in-inventory, and (6) other real estate investments which are considered inventory due to being held for sale or disposition.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Amount of investment in certain other real estate investments not specifically identified elsewhere in the existing taxonomy.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Amount of real estate investment property which may include the following: (1) land available-for-sale; (2) land available-for-development; (3) investments in building and building improvements; (4) tenant allowances; (5) developments in-process; (6) rental properties; and (7) other real estate investments.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 944
-SubTopic 210
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.7-03.1(d))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6879938&loc=d3e572229-122910

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