I live in New Mexico where it is extremely dry (unless it is flash-flooding).
I was thinking of replacing carpet with hardwood, but a guy at the local Lowes said it's not suitable for arid environments. So he's just a Lowes lackey, right? Except he started pointing out that all the hardwood planks on display were cracked. And the more I looked, the more cracking I found! According to him the cracking (I think he he called it checking?) is an absolute certainty in this environment, except maybe the thick solid planks (that aren't suitable for my concrete slab foundation - no subfloor).
On top of the cracking problem, people I talk to consistently say wood is not good for high-traffic areas, which is most everywhere in my relatively small home with 4 kids. There are almost constant wet spills, dragging around chairs and tables, gritty sand tracked into the house, etc.
I'm almost convinced that laminate flooring (Pergo) is the better choice, but the style I like is almost $3.50/sq ft., similar to a fairly wide variety of engineered hardwoods. I may be moving soon so resale value counts. And some say wet spills destroy Pergo, too.
I seem to have talked myself out of every option.