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Geothermal is very different than air. In my state that hole will run you about 20k alone, if they let you drill it the first place. I have an air-air heat pump and i hate it, mostly due to air flow issues, but they really don’t work well in low temps.

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It runs you $20k here too (well, the hole plus the pump plus installation is about 20k) but still pretty much everyone does it, because it's so dramatically more efficient that you're going to make that money back before the pump is toast -- and when it is, it's much cheaper to upgrade to a new one because you already have the hole ;)

Yes they do. I have no idea what heat pumps you have, but air-air heat pumps can be found in every other house here in Norway.

My main unit (live in the northern part of the central US) can operate below -10F with no problem heating my house. It is a dual fuel system (natural gas + HP) and, normal operations I don't, normally, run the pump at those temps. I generally lock the HP out around 10F and let the system choose the heat source based on the conditions.

Air source heat pumps are very viable in the northern climates of the US.

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