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Last year, KCBS hosted a business mixer called “Making Lemonade Out of Lemons”—with a panel of real estate experts talking about their views on the market. The Real Story caught up with panelist and San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carolyn Said last week to get her take on where the market is going in 2010.

Although Carolyn starts out today’s podcast by listing some of what she terms “the surface signs of stability”—less inventory, a rising median price for the Bay Area and a stemming of the deluge of foreclosures that characterized 2009—she reminds The Real Story that a few months of stability is not a strong indication that the real estate market has turned a corner.

Indeed, although foreclosures are occurring at a slower pace, the number of defaults—an indicator of future foreclosures—is on the rise.  And the Federal government’s HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) has seen only about one million home loans modified in the past year. Carolyn introduced The Real Story to a new term: trial loan modification. This program sets up a three month “trial” to see if the homeowner can make the modified mortgage payment on an ongoing basis. So far, only 20 percent of the trial modifications have been converted to permanent loan modifications.

Listen to Carolyn’s five-part interview this week by downloading a new segment of the interview every day, Monday through Friday.