Variable Interest Entities (Details Textual) - Variable Interest Entity, Primary Beneficiary [Member] $ in Thousands	Mar. 31, 2016 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($) community Entity Apartment_home
Napico Portfolio [Member]
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Assets	$ 141,618
Liabilities	$ 153,746
Accounting Standards Update 2015-02 [Member]
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Number of consolidated variable interest entities \| Entity		14
Number of Apartment Communities \| community		18
Number of apartment homes in apartment communities \| Apartment_home		6,186
Assets		$ 885,936
Liabilities		$ 645,293

Number of variable interest entities in which the company holds variable interests.

No definition available.

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- Definition

The number of real estate properties owned as of the balance sheet date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The number of units in a real estate property owned as of the balance sheet date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
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- Definition

The carrying amount of the consolidated Variable Interest Entity's assets included in the reporting entity's statement of financial position.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (bb)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64801991&loc=d3e5710-111685

+ Details

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Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The carrying amount of the consolidated Variable Interest Entity's liabilities included in the reporting entity's statement of financial position.

+ References

+ Details

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Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- 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

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- Details

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- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

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