Same experience here. Investors like to be close to their money. Being in a city that is easy traveling distance from a major international airport hub means that any investor in the world is one plane flight away. being one short hop beyond that means the number of available investors becomes limited to the people who are very local.
Even then.. Are the airports in NYC, SF or Seattle really that much better than say Portland, Denver, Boise or a number of other smaller cities that aren't as packed?