Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Competitively priced hardwood in MN?

I have been like a dog, chasing it's own tail. I will be installing about 490 sq ft of wood flooring in our new house. I live in southern MN and have been trying to find hardwood flooring that is competitively priced. My preference is to get 3/4 in, unfinished white oak. We could maybe settle for #1 common but would like select grade.

There has to be a place that I can get this amount of wood for 3 bucks a sq ft isn't there? Even less? I would be willing to drive a hundred miles to get it since shipping costs would probably be enormous.

Seems like the prices between good quality engineered or laminate flooring and hardwood are getting so close that I question putting in "real" hardwood in the first place. From all that I have read here and seen in the show rooms, laminate is looking more and more like real wood, without the lack of bullet-proof durability that laminate can offer.

My biggest fear with laminate is it looking "cheap" as compared to a real wood floor. We ain't building a mansion or anything, but for us, this new house is the Trump Tower. When you walk on a 3/4 inch, solid wood floor, you know it. Laminate seems to have that "clickity-click" sound as you walk over it. If a person were to glue and staple 1/4 inch underlayment, then lay "quiet step" over the top of that with Classic Estate by Wilsonart over the top of that, would the floor give you a more solid feel and sound versus just laying the cheap poly underlayment and cheaper laminate over that?

I know, by reading the posts in this section, that the hardwood vs. laminate debate has been talked about over and over and that any decision boils down to personal preference and budget so I know that I ain't breakin' no new ground here....

I would just hate to install the laminate and then look at it later and say "hhmmmm...shoulda' put hardwood down" or install hardwood and see the high traffic areas get beat up and see dents in the kitchen from dropped cans and knives.

I gotta tell ya...this board has been a wealth of information and the people that are frequent this board seem to have alot of different experiences....

Thanks in advance for your replies (if any)

Go with the wood. I don't have advice of where to find it, but real wood feel (it sounds like you really like it) cannot be emulated by any other product or pad under it.
If you see it getting beat up, then sand it.
good luck

let us know if you find some.