You can withdraw your direct contributions to a Roth IRA at any time for any reason.

A Roth individual retirement account is often cited as a way to save for your golden years. It could also help you buy a house.

In a nutshell, up to $10,000 in earnings can be withdrawn from such an account — free of both taxes and penalty — for a home purchase if you meet certain requirements. That’s on top of the ability to withdraw your direct contributions at any time, because you already paid taxes on that money.

As home prices continue their upward trajectory, the amount of cash needed to purchase one continues to rise as well. While it’s possible to buy a house with less than 20% down — the average is 12% overall and 6% for first-time buyers — going that route also might mean paying private mortgage insurance, or PMI, until your equity is at least 20% of the home’s value. PMI can run $30 to $70 monthly for each $100,000 borrowed, according to Freddie Mac.

For a $250,000 house, a 6% down payment would be $15,000. At 20%, it would be $50,000. Those amounts don’t include other costs related to closing on the purchase, such as transfer taxes or points (one point is equal to 1% of the mortgage).

At the same time, the cost of borrowing is relatively cheap due to historically low interest rates. The average rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage was just under 3% on July 31, according to NerdWallet.com.

Nevertheless, using Roth IRA money to buy a house is not a strategy that makes sense for everyone. Here’s what to consider.