Inventory - Narrative (Details) (USD $)	12 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2014 home Community		Sep. 30, 2013 home	Sep. 30, 2012 Community
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Impairment of Ongoing Project	$ 5,400,000		$ 59,000
Threshold Number of Homes Below a Minimum Threshold of Profitability	10
Number of subtantially completed homes not subject to a sales contract	205		113
Total value of substantially completed homes	48,000,000		30,700,000
Owned inventory	1,557,496,000		1,304,694,000
Number of communities impaired	2	[1]		5
Deposits & Non-refundable Preacquisition Costs Incurred	43,529,000		37,313,000
Total remaining purchase price committed under all options	420,534,000		288,638,000
Minimum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Discount rate	13.00%			11.20%
Maximum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Discount rate	15.00%			17.00%
CALIFORNIA
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Owned inventory	426,100,000		388,100,000
East
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Owned inventory	417,628,000		361,218,000
Southeast
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Owned inventory	280,575,000		210,452,000
Discontinued Operations
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of communities impaired	0			0
Lot Option Abandonments	0		0	16,000
Discontinued Operations | East
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Impairment of Ongoing Project	100,000	[1]
Threshold Number of Homes Below a Minimum Threshold of Profitability	10
Continuing Operations
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of communities impaired	2	[1]		5
Lot Option Abandonments	2,626,000		445,000	2,415,000
Continuing Operations | East
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Impairment of Ongoing Project	100,000	[1]
Threshold Number of Homes Below a Minimum Threshold of Profitability	10
Number of communities impaired	0	[1]		2
Lot Option Abandonments	131,000		20,000	1,320,000
Continuing Operations | Southeast
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of communities impaired	0			1
Lot Option Abandonments	2,495,000		321,000	792,000
Wetlands Permitting Issue | Continuing Operations | Southeast
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Lot Option Abandonments	$ 1,700,000

[1] During the year ended September 30, 2014, we recorded an impairment charge of $0.1 million in our East segment. The community had less than 10 lots remaining to close at the time of the analysis and therefore, consistent with our policy, we did not prepare an undiscounted or discounted cash flow analysis related to this community.