Mortgage Loans & Sub Prime Mortgage Lenders

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just dense but I can't find a list of Prime Mortgage Lenders, anywhere.

I see plenty of information on Sub Prime Mortgage Lenders, but I can't find a bank, mortgage company, article, or website that will tell me who the Prime Mortgage Lenders are!

And I'm confused because I thought that "Prime" and "Sub Prime" were terms that referred to loans, not Lenders. For example, if you qualified for a "Prime" loan, then your credit, income, debt ratio, size of down payment, etc., were in good shape. But, if you couldn't qualify for a "Prime" loan, it was because of a low or "bad" rating in (usually) more than one of the areas I mentioned above (bad credit, low income, small down payment, etc.). And that meant you were reduced to getting a "Sub Prime" loan, and you would pay more for the loan.

But, lately I've been seeing many articles on "Sub Prime Lenders." These articles don't name these Sub Prime Lenders. Most just state that there are many Prime Lenders who have affiliates that are Sub Prime. They don't say who the Prime Lenders are either. Shouldn't someone have a list of Prime and Sub Prime Lenders? (Well, that's what I was hoping for anyway.)

Why do I care? Didn't I mention that I want to sell my house and buy another one in the country? That bit of information probably would have helped you understand my frustration, wouldn't it? And, I care because I want to make sure I'm not applying for a mortgage through a Sub Prime Lender. It's not like they'll tell you that you'll qualify for a better rate if you apply at a different Mortgage Company.

In this article the Mortgage Professor hints that two of the Prime Lenders are Countrywide(.com) and Indymac(.com). But, I think the other sites that he suggests for checking your eligibility for mainstream financing are mortgage brokers (mortgage brokers add their fee to the cost of your loan).

If anyone knows more about Prime and Sub Prime Lenders than I do (which obviously wouldn't be hard), and would like to educate me, please feel free to do so, cause I must be missing something.