The number of delinquent homeowners in the Chicago area who received permanent mortgage loan modifications rose almost 7 percent in August, but participation in trial modification plans fell 21 percent, according to data released Wednesday afternoon by the Treasury Dept.

In the Chicago area, 23,288 homeowners had received permanently modifications between the start of the Home Affordable Modification Program in the spring of 2009 and the end of August. Meanwhile, the number of local homeowners who qualify to receive lower payment terms on a trial basis fell to 10,058 in August, from 12,734 in July.

Nationally, of the 1.3 million trial modifications begun since the program’s inception, less than 34 percent of them have been made permanent. Of those whose HAMP modifications with the nation’s eight largest servicers have been canceled, approximately 45 percent have entered into alternative modification plans with the loan servicers.

Nationally, the government said that fewer than 5 percent of the loans modification applications that got a “second look ” by its reviewers were found to have been evaluated incorrectly by loan servicers.