Real Estate Securities - Gross Realized Gains and Losses on Sales and Calls of Available for Sale Securities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Total Realized Gains on Sales and Calls of AFS Securities, net	$ 14,107	$ 22,515	$ 36,369
Call Option
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Gross realized gains	677	1,210	2,167
Gross realized losses	(497)	0	(112)
Put Option
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]
Gross realized gains	13,927	23,598	34,922
Gross realized losses	$ 0	$ (2,293)	$ (608)

Available-for-sale Securities, Gross Realized Gain (Loss) On Sales And Calls

No definition available.

Name:	rwt_AvailableforsaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGainLossOnSalesAndCalls
Namespace Prefix:	rwt_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

This item represents the gross profit realized on the sale of debt or equity securities categorized neither as held-to-maturity nor trading securities.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 9
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=73527792&loc=d3e27357-111563

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGains
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

This item represents the gross loss realized on the sale of debt or equity securities categorized neither as held-to-maturity nor trading securities.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedLosses
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ScheduleOfAvailableForSaleSecuritiesLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_OptionIndexedToIssuersEquityEquityAxis=us-gaap_CallOptionMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_OptionIndexedToIssuersEquityEquityAxis=us-gaap_PutOptionMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: