Condensed Consolidated Statements Of Income (USD $) In Thousands, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2009
Revenues:
Rental income	$ 76,050	$ 71,289	$ 53,648
Mortgage interest income	6,652	6,743	9,145
Net Revenues	82,702	78,032	62,793
Expenses:
Depreciation	11,992	11,203	8,621
Legal expense	559	1,152	1,954
Franchise, excise and other taxes	952	637	730
General and administrative	7,473	7,696	5,255
Loan and realty recoveries	(99)	(573)	(1,077)
Total operating expenses	20,838	19,831	14,138
Income before non-operating income	61,864	58,201	48,655
Investment income and other	14,744	5,191	8,581
Interest expense and amortization of loan costs, net of change in fair value of interest rate swap agreement (Note 7)	(3,848)	(1,552)	(175)
Income from continuing operations	72,760	61,840	57,061
Discontinued operations
Income from operations - discontinued	5,024	5,577	7,168
Gain on sale of real estate	3,348	2,004
Income from discontinued operations	8,372	7,581	7,168
Net income	81,132	69,421	64,229
Weighted average common shares outstanding:
Basic	27,719,096	27,664,482	27,586,338
Diluted	27,792,592	27,732,959	27,618,300
Earnings per common share, Basic:
Income from continuing operations	$ 2.63	$ 2.24	$ 2.07
Discontinued operations	$ 0.30	$ 0.27	$ 0.26
Net income per common share	$ 2.93	$ 2.51	$ 2.33
Earnings per common share, Diluted:
Income from continuing operations	$ 2.62	$ 2.23	$ 2.06
Discontinued operations	$ 0.30	$ 0.27	$ 0.26
Net income per common share	$ 2.92	$ 2.50	$ 2.32
Total continuing operations properties [Member]
Expenses:
Depreciation	$ 11,953	$ 10,919	$ 7,276