Now is definitely the time to buy a house in the US -- the price of property has plummeted. Unless you need a mortgage. Then it's not a great time, because rates are soaring.

If you're location independent, there are plenty of places with low costs of living in the US. I'd suggest avoiding the western states, though, since the mega-draught is likely to only worsen, and you really don't want to have to import water just to live. I have friends who moved to Maine because it was somewhere they could have a comfortable lifestyle on a writer's income.