A state program offering home loans and down payment assistance to residents with low to moderate incomes has been expanded to provide mortgages backed by the federal government.

The state program known as Hula Mae offers 30-year mortgages at a 3.45 percent interest rate plus down payment assistance for up to 3 percent of a home’s purchase price at a 3.8 percent interest rate.

The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., the state agency administering the program, recently expanded Hula Mae to include three federally insured types of loans — from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs — through the federal government’s Ginnie Mae program.

About $34 million is in the Hula Mae program and available through participating lenders.

Under the program, participating lenders will originate the loans and sell them to U.S. Bank National Association. U.S. Bank then packages the loans into securities guaranteed by the federal agencies, and those securities, or bonds, are bought by the state Housing Finance agency. U.S. Bank services the loans, and Housing Finance earns a return on them.

To qualify for the program, borrowers may not have owned a home in the past three years, and must live in the new home for as long as the loan is in effect. The loans are only for purchasing a home.

There are also income and home price limits. Annual gross income may not exceed $123,600 for a family of two or fewer, or $144,200 for a family of three or more, on Oahu.

Lower limits apply to the neighbor islands based on median income levels.

Purchase price limits are $732,692 on Oahu, $729,230 on Maui, $714,231 on Kauai and $571,153 on Hawaii island.

For more information, call 587-0567 on Oahu or visit hawaii.gov/dbedt /hhfdc.