I had to replace my machine of 30 years (New Home)! It was a hard decision as to what to buy. The very first thing is to consider your budget of course. Then decide on features that you would like it to have, and do go out and test drive some out there.
I finally decided on a Brother 4000, it has the needle down feature (stops with the needle down every time), has several nice feet that came with it, has a nice buttonhole feature, and quite a few nice variety of stitches. The best part was that it fit my budget (it was under $150.00). It is a lot lighter than my old one was, and the sleeve arm is a little wider, but it does what I need it to do. It also came with the 1/4 inch foot for quilting.