Welcome aboard to the boards and the hobby. I just moved to Peoria a couple of years but so far I've successfully avoided Chicago.
First off, what are your goals for quilting/what type of work do you want/expect to do?
There are a lot of machines out there for well under $1500 -- but it depends on what you want. How many stitches, how deep a bed/throat, and so forth. Lots of special feature options out there, I like having an auto thread cutter and a knee lift for the presser foot to go up and down. Some people want to be able to just press buttons and not use a foot pedal. If you want to also do garment construction, a free arm is really nice but pretty well unneeded for quilting...
Here's another weird consideration -- where will you be sewing be done and where will your machine be kept? Trust me, some of those big expensive machines are heavy and awkward to move and set up/take down.
When you say your current machine has trouble sewing through multiple layers -- how many layers? Is that of quilt fabric? Jeans? Do you want to do your own machine quilting?
For a sturdy, able to go through multiple layers, vintage machines with just straight/zigzag/buttonhole, I love the "badged" machines like in the thread below. They are easy to learn to work on and do your own maintenance and last forever... and they are pretty easy to find in garage sales/thrift stores etc. for about $20-60 for a fully functioning machine, depending on what accessories have stayed with it. My own is a Remington. I love Morse, they tend to be a bit more MCM (mid century modern) styling with chrome and the equivalent of fins on cars.
https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...s-t207877.html
Recently I bought a new primary machine after my last top model died (Bernina). I did like a lot of the modern bells and whistles, but what I wanted was a threading assist, a top loading bobbin, and a straight stitch, so I bought a semi-industrial home Juki for under $1k. It is straight stitch only, but I'm a quilter and that's what I use 99% of the time. I do have a portable class machine with a few stitches, and my vintage Remington with a nice zigzag.
There was a recent thread here with a machine I was pretty impressed with for closer to $500 or so price (but who knows what the last couple of months have done or what sales there are). I'd have to look for that model again. The Juki would still be my primary machine but it had a lot of nice features including a serpentine stitch (wavy lined useful for sturdy but fancy looking grids), and it was a more portable weight, reasonably suitable to upgrade my portable/class machine.