The desert is a great place, especially to loot...

Here is a table with some info:

Advantages	1. Rich in ore and sand	2. Coral reefs often generate nearby	3. It has desert temples and wells
Disadvantages	1. There are no trees outside villages	2. Husks are stronger than zombies	3. It is hard to make a shelter there
Structures	1. Desert villages	2. Desert temples	3. Camels(mob found in villages)
Mapping	1. Easy to map	2. Hard to distinguish structures	3. Hard to make houses and builds

You should try to find a mountain because the ground is extremely dangerous, a floating island is also a great place but more dangerous.

Its mountains often generate scar-like voids, making them great for making access tunnels, in the desert it is pretty important to have access tunnels due to the possible dangers(falling sand, husks, skeletons, spiders, tnt traps in the temples).

Snow golems melt there, so it is more reliable to use iron golems, iron mining is quite tough there.

A shelter has 2 options:

Your normal minecraft house

Reinforced desert housing*

*It is made by using sand, and is reinforced through cactus and torches

You have it very easy to get torches there because dead bushes drop sticks and coal is way too common in the rock layers within the desert.

I'll update this soon