Welcome to your new addiction!
You asked in the other thread about nylon versus steel stringed.
Nylon strings have a great advantage for a beginner in that they are less painful to your fretting fingers. They have the ideal sound for classical music and, depending on the instrument, flamenco. Some jazz players, particularly players who specialize in Latin Jazz, Samba or Tango, can make them sound really good. For just about anything else, they sound rather lame to my ears. (I’m primarily a classical player, I can get away with saying this about my main instruments…)
Steel strings are harder on your fingers, especially for a beginner. For Jazz, Rock, Folk and Country, though, this is much more the standard sound. So you’re up against a longer period for getting your fingers calloused, but I think this is more where you should be looking.
In terms of your price range, you’ll be more likely to find a steel string that you won’t want to replace than a classical you won’t want to replace.
A couple of big questions - do you want a pick up in your acoustic guitar? This will bump your minimum price range to more like $800. (I’m thinking in Canadian dollars - our dollar is higher than the US dollar right now, but our pricing remains stuck based on when we were 75-80% of the US. You may well find better bargains stateside.) It is not necessary unless you end up gigging. Pickups can be retro-fitted, but it’s much easier to have them built in from the start.
Second big question, but this is for you to ask the salespeople. A solid top is going to sound better and age better than a laminate top. A laminate top is cheaper. So, based on your hope that you will not have to trade up in a few years, I recommend looking for a solid top, which will take you much closer to your $500. limit. That being said, there are instruments out there.
The Canadian guitars - Godin, Seagull, Simon and Patrick, Norman, La Patrie, you might find a used Larrivee or Art of Lutherie in that price range, though I doubt it - in that price range are a good value. Takamine has been mentioned up thread. Yamahas are also good. Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Guild - keep an open mind, but I think if someone is offering you one of those for $500., they either don’t know what they have or there’s something seriously wrong with it.
Do you know anyone who plays well enough to come with you to a guitar shop? Have them play the same thing on three or four different instruments. Everybody says the same thing - ‘I don’t thing I can tell the difference between a good guitar and a bad one’ - before they go into the guitar shop. Half an hour later, they’re all saying ‘I can’t believe the difference in sound between those three guitars!’. Some of your decision should be based on how the instrument feels in your own hands, but hearing the sound it can make in somebody else’s hands can really help you make up your mind.
I highly recommend getting a teacher even for when you’re starting out; just wanted to throw that out there.