Welcome from NJ. I have no experience with the brands listed for new machines. I, too, encourage you to visit a local dealer and see what they have to offer both in the way of machines and your rapport with them. It's quite possible they have some very nice older models that have been traded in and are completely serviced. You can definitely stretch your budget with buying used.
Since you mention you've been reading the board here for a bit, take a look at some of the threads on machine features. You could do a search on 'machine recommendations' and you'll get a bazillion threads on the subject. You can see what others find 'must have' features to give you some clues as to things you may want in a machine if you are not sure at this point. If you do a search, keep in mind that we've been having a few issues lately with that function. Initially your search will have nothing but blank posts. If you hit the F5 key on your keyboard it will refresh the page and all the responses will populate.
Good luck in you machine and future sewing quests.