Much of this really depends on what style of life you're willing to live and what sacrifices you're willing to make.
Right now if you were to be in a village outside large cities in a place like Bulgaria or Romania, it is as if COVID does not exist. That is not an exaggeration. You might find the odd 65+ person wearing a mask in a super market but other than that daily life is no different than years ago. And in such villages most don't even have a police station. There's almost no cops nor would they care enough to enforce anything. And even if they did like with a traffic ticket, $50 gets them on their way.
If you were to buy a house in one of these villages you could you will have to put money into it unless it is new. The costs are cheap relative to the west but if you want western standards you will need to invest. As an example, my house in a Bulgarian village does not have an indoor toilet, like many there although it has plumbing in the kitchen and indoor shower. I am planning on renovating the entire property down the road. It is 4 bedrooms, two stories, nice kitchen, a hosting room for gatherings, wood burning fireplaces in every room, with a 1/2 acre garden. The roads aren't nicely paved like in the US. There are many abandoned houses as generations left for the big cities. You would have to drive 30+ mins to get to a large retail store or city. But a house like this can be bought for 5-10K. It can be renovated with bathrooms for 10-20K.
But on the other hand no one is enforcing a damn thing. No one cares. We have plenty of space to grow our own food if we wanted as that is how my wife's grandparents lived for decades. Everything from fruits/veggies to chickens/rabbits. We have the equipment to make our own wine/rakia which many do. If you need bread or milk you just walk to the village market. If you want meat, you go down the street to the person who raises cows and simply buy fresh. My wife and kids were just at our house in the village. Kids would play outside in the back in the morning, they'd go see friends in the afternoon and have coffee/food, they'd go to the park or playground and play with others, then have get togethers for dinner. BBQ, music, dance, just have a good time. There's schools, a market, a church, a pharmacy, a cafe, a mayor, a local bar, etc. But you can easily live completely self sufficient in many of these villages.
People there have never even heard of a PCR test.
