Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

  Basis of Presentation

     The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) and certain reclassifications considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Certain reclassifications have been made to the prior period financial statements in order to conform to the current year presentation. Operating results for the six months ended June 30, 2011 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2011.

     In preparation of the Company’s financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, management makes estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these estimates.

     The balance sheets at December 31, 2010 have been derived from the audited financial statements at that date but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for complete financial statements.

     For further information, including definitions of capitalized terms not defined herein, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in each of the Company’s and the Operating Partnership’s annual reports on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010.

  Income and Other Taxes

     Due to the structure of EQR as a REIT and the nature of the operations of its operating properties, no provision for federal income taxes has been made at the EQR level. In addition, ERPOP generally is not liable for federal income taxes as the partners recognize their proportionate share of income or loss in their tax returns; therefore no provision for federal income taxes has been made at the ERPOP level. Historically, the Company has generally only incurred certain state and local income, excise and franchise taxes. The Company has elected Taxable REIT Subsidiary (“TRS”) status for certain of its corporate subsidiaries and as a result, these entities will incur both federal and state income taxes on any taxable income of such entities after consideration of any net operating losses.

     Deferred tax assets and liabilities applicable to the TRS entities are recognized for future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. These assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates for which the temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effects of changes in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized in earnings in the period enacted. The Company’s deferred tax assets are generally the result of tax affected amortization of goodwill, differing depreciable lives on capitalized assets and the timing of expense recognition for certain accrued liabilities. As of June 30, 2011, the Company has recorded a deferred tax asset of approximately $38.7 million, which is fully offset by a valuation allowance due to the uncertainty in forecasting future TRS taxable income.

  Other

     Effective January 1, 2010, in an effort to improve financial standards for transfers of financial assets, more stringent conditions for reporting a transfer of a portion of a financial asset as a sale (e.g. loan participations) are required, the concept of a “qualifying special-purpose entity” and special guidance for guaranteed mortgage securitizations are eliminated, other sale-accounting criteria is clarified and the initial measurement of a transferor’s interest in transferred financial assets is changed. This does not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated results of operations or financial position.

     Effective January 1, 2010, the analysis for identifying the primary beneficiary of a Variable Interest Entity (“VIE”) has been simplified by replacing the previous quantitative-based analysis with a framework that is based more on qualitative judgments. The analysis requires the primary beneficiary of a VIE to be identified as the party that both (a) has the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact its economic performance and (b) has an obligation to absorb losses or a right to receive benefits that could potentially be significant to the VIE. For the Company, this includes its consolidated development partnerships as the Company provides substantially all of the capital for these ventures (other than third party mortgage debt, if any). For the Company, these requirements affected only disclosures and had no impact on the Company’s consolidated results of operations or financial position. See Note 6 for further discussion.

     The Company is required to make certain disclosures regarding noncontrolling interests in consolidated limited-life subsidiaries. For these consolidated entities, the Company is the controlling partner in various partnerships owning 22 properties and 4,371 apartment units and various completed and uncompleted development properties having a noncontrolling interest book value of $3.3 million at June 30, 2011. Some of these partnership agreements contain provisions that require the partnerships to be liquidated through the sale of their assets upon reaching a date specified in each respective partnership agreement. The Company, as controlling partner, has an obligation to cause the property owning partnerships to distribute the proceeds of liquidation to the Noncontrolling Interests in these Partially Owned Properties only to the extent that the net proceeds received by the partnerships from the sale of their assets warrant a distribution based on the partnership agreements. As of June 30, 2011, the Company estimates the value of Noncontrolling Interest distributions would have been approximately $63.4 million (“Settlement Value”) had the partnerships been liquidated. This Settlement Value is based on estimated third party consideration realized by the partnerships upon disposition of the Partially Owned Properties and is net of all other assets and liabilities, including yield maintenance on the mortgages encumbering the properties, that would have been due on June 30, 2011 had those mortgages been prepaid. Due to, among other things, the inherent uncertainty in the sale of real estate assets, the amount of any potential distribution to the Noncontrolling Interests in the Company’s Partially Owned Properties is subject to change. To the extent that the partnerships’ underlying assets are worth less than the underlying liabilities, the Company has no obligation to remit any consideration to the Noncontrolling Interests in these Partially Owned Properties.

     Effective January 1, 2011, companies are required to separately disclose purchases, sales, issuances and settlements on a gross basis in the reconciliation of recurring Level 3 fair value measurements. This does not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated results of operations or financial position. See Note 11 for further discussion.

     Effective January 1, 2012, companies will be required to separately disclose the amounts and reasons for any transfers of assets and liabilities into and out of Level 1 and Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy. For fair value measurements using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3), companies will be required to disclose quantitative information about the significant unobservable inputs used for all Level 3 measurements and a description of the Company’s valuation processes in determining fair value. In addition, companies will be required to provide a qualitative discussion about the sensitivity of recurring Level 3 measurements to changes in the unobservable inputs disclosed, including the interrelationship between inputs. Companies will also be required to disclose information about when the current use of a non-financial asset measured at fair value differs from its highest and best use and the hierarchy classification for items whose fair value is not recorded on the balance sheet but is disclosed in the notes. The Company does not expect this will have a material effect on its consolidated results of operations or financial position.

     Effective January 1, 2009, issuers of certain convertible debt instruments that may be settled in cash on conversion were required to separately account for the liability and equity components of the instrument in a manner that reflects each issuer’s nonconvertible debt borrowing rate. As the Company is required to apply this retrospectively, the accounting for its $650.0 million ($482.5 million outstanding at June 30, 2011) 3.85% convertible unsecured notes that were issued in August 2006 and mature in August 2026 was affected. The Company recognized $9.3 million and $9.3 million in interest expense related to the stated coupon rate of 3.85% for the six months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively. The amount of the conversion option as of the date of issuance calculated by the Company using a 5.80% effective interest rate was $44.3 million and is being amortized to interest expense over the expected life of the convertible notes (through the first put date on August 18, 2011). Total amortization of the cash discount and conversion option discount on the unsecured notes resulted in a reduction to earnings of approximately $3.9 million and $3.9 million, respectively, or $0.01 per share/Unit and $0.01 per share/Unit, respectively, for the six months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, and is anticipated to result in a reduction to earnings of approximately $5.0 million or $0.02 per share/Unit during the full year of 2011. In addition, the Company decreased the January 1, 2009 balance of retained earnings (included in general partner’s capital in the Operating Partnership’s financial statements) by $27.0 million, decreased the January 1, 2009 balance of notes by $17.3 million and increased the January 1, 2009 balance of paid in capital (included in general partner’s capital in the Operating Partnership’s financial statements) by $44.3 million. The carrying amount of the conversion option remaining in paid in capital (included in general partner’s capital in the Operating Partnership’s financial statements) was $44.3 million at both June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010. The unamortized cash and conversion option discounts totaled $1.1 million and $5.0 million at June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, respectively.