Organization (Details Textual)			9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2013 Units Property	Dec. 31, 2012 Property Units	Sep. 30, 2013 Conventional Real Estate Operations [Member] Property Units	Sep. 30, 2013 Affordable Real Estate Operations [Member] Property Units	Sep. 30, 2013 Consolidated Properties [Member] Conventional Real Estate Operations [Member] Property Units	Sep. 30, 2013 Consolidated Properties [Member] Affordable Real Estate Operations [Member] Property Units	Sep. 30, 2013 AIMCO PROPERTIES, L.P
Organization [Line Items]
Number of owned real estate properties in segments	2	15	173	79	169	63
Number of apartment homes in owned real estate properties in segments	536	3,046	54,094	10,891	53,952	9,777
Percentage of proportionate property net operating income generated by segment			90.00%	10.00%
Shares of common stock/units outstanding	145,916,439	145,563,903					153,859,506
Organization (Textual) [Abstract]
Aimco's ownership interest in AIMCO Properties, L.P.	94.80%