engineered wood flooring is roughly twice as dimensionally stable than solid hardwood flooring in terms of expansion and contraction, especially in humid areas like buffalo's proximity to and situated between two large great lakes that are basically small oceans, therefore high humidity climates.

I do know in coastal areas solid wood flooing is a huge NO NO, so it seems to be the same there.

I would tend to believe the local flooring shops over a Home Depot worker.

Your local retailers have alot of experience and porobably have had problems with himidity failures in solid wood flooring, and since they are all saying the same thing, It adds some creedence. Since they are all in competition with one another you can assume their opinions and unbiased and honest.

that's my take on it anyway.

I live in Michigan, surrounded by the 5 Great Lakes and 10 miles from the shore of one of them. We have humidity in the 80-90% range most of the summer. Almost every new home around here has solid wood floors including mine. I never received any warning about the danger of installing them due to high humidity levels. I'm not sure whose advice you should accept, but it's worth looking into a bit deeper. You could try nofma.org (the wood flooring manufacturers association website). There also used to be a great site monitored by wood floor installers, but I can't seem to find the link. Perhaps someone else remembers?

Tour a few historic homes in your area, and you'll find oak and pine wood floors that have survived well over 100 years in your climate and still look beautiful.