Pretty much. From my quick google search a Flash Forge Creator Seems to hold up to this. And that’s under 1,000 k. Seems well rated.
But I’d say yeah 1,500 - 2,000 seems like a good range that will get you a dialed in machine. I also would recommend either an Ultimaker 2 or the Taz. Never had a problem with either. Taz is open source so there a ton of good community around it, and the Ultimaker is just an overall solid machine, just a tad bit pricier.
You can most likely get away with a cheaper machine and upgrade the hotend to an all metal one. Like this http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6/Full-Kit not a lot of people are in the mood to spend a few days tweaking hardware/software settings to get it working.