Buying a house when the country is...a hot mess

We've been working on getting out of poverty for...well, life. We have been diligently, painfully doing what we can to save for a house. A year ago, we were using food banks and now that we finally have solid jobs, things were looking better financially. The plan was to save this year and buy a house next year. I've never had a house. I added up the rent I've paid in my life and I could have bought two houses by now. Anyway, y'all know what I mean.

Now I feel like renting might help if we had to move quickly. We're in a red state so whatever crazy things are proposed in the White House are cannon here. I can't see us moving unless something awful happened but do we just not own a house for four (maybe more) years just so we can leave within 30 days notice? Part of me feels like I could be paying a mortgage to my house instead of rent to another person, but I don't want to be "house poor."

Is that even a thing? At least house poor still has a house. My brain is a mess of what ifs and idk how to even make this decision.