The housing bubble and insider trading

Today I was looking at reports for companies where insiders have recently bought shares with their own money. I'm not talking excercising options, I'm talking buying shares on the market. When insiders buy shares in their company with their own money, that says something about their future outlook and confidence in the business. Take a look at what Michael Dell bought last week. Almost 3,000,000 shares! Also, folks at Chesapeake Energy Corp. have been doing some buying recently. All good indications for those companies, don't you think?

Then I began to wonder what insiders at companies that benefitted from the housing bubble have been up to. Take a look at the insider trading at Toll Brothers. Some selling in January of this year (60,000 shares). Some more selling in September last year, to the tune of 620,000 shares. But July 2005 is when the Toll brothers, Bruce and Robert more than 2 million shares combined! What about Home Depot? Again, brisk selling activity in March 2006, and June and September of 2005. Then there's Washington Mutual, a company that does a lot of mortgage business.

What was going on around July last year that triggered these sales? Does the insider selling in the last few months mean that folks that made money on the housing bubble see the tide turning? Do you know of any other companies that raked in fat profits during the booming housing market whose insiders have been unloading shares?