I'm in the same boat living in CA it's a difficult place to cash flow...I too invested OOS, North Carolina.

Small town north of Nashville, large swaths already zoned R6 high density.  

Best advice is getting attorney and ask what the courts will say if you have a problem in lease options with sellers or buyersthere's issues in North Carolina theres issues in Texas there's issues wherever you go and your attorney can guide youThe key is not being a one trick pony and learning every legal way there is to buy or sell property with or without banks

We are presently searching for a domestic/North American solution that will lower our installation costs and be more readily accessible.

If you want to come more east there are a lot of options both North and South of Boston.  

A lot of wealth is moving up North.

Up here, were our primary concern is winter, we will have higher reflectivity / lower solar gain on the north face and higher solar gain on the south and west (provided the windows are properly shaded from the mid-summer sun).  

If you concentrate as far north as Manchester you will start to have a big fall off in the amount of MA people willing to go that far.  

On the north side of Cincy, I would look at Colerain, Mt.

In Dallas, substantial growth has moved 25 miles north even though cheap accessible land is just south and east.