Subprime. Just seeing the word breeds thoughts of failure, greed, and stupidity. We all know the story: Mortgage bankers lent money to anyone with a central nervous system; Homeowners knowingly lied on their mortgage applications; Wall Street gladly bought it all without asking questions. The result was a trifecta of insanity like never before.

But subprime was 2007 and 2008's crisis. In fact, newly initiated subprime foreclosures actually decreased 16.7% over the past year.

Unfortunately, subprime's decelerating assault has given way to a bigger, badder offender: prime mortgages.

Prime mortgages are just as they sound -- made to people with good credit scores, documented income, and down payments. They're held in bulk by banks like Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), and in crazy amounts by Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM).

But over the past year, prime mortgage foreclosures have been growing faster than any other mortgage segment. Have a look:

Mortgage Type

Year-Over-Year Change in Newly Initiated Foreclosures

Newly Initiated Foreclosures (3/31/09)

Prime

25.6%

132,730

Alt-A

(6.9%)

56,948

Subprime

(16.7%)

64,628

Other

2.5%

36,614

Total

3.8% Continued...