There are lots of good acoustics in that price range. What sort of style is it for? Fingerstyle, strumming, country or rock? Will it only be played onstage, or will it be a recording/daily guitar too? And if you're playing it live, keep in mind you'll want a hard case for it too - probably $50-100.
Acoustic-electric behavior is different from pure acoustic behavior. For example, Ovation guitars sound great onstage, but sound like wet farts unamplified. The stock (usually Fishman) electronics in budget acoustic-electrics often leave much to be desired. You might be better off buying a guitar without electronics and using an inexpensive soundhole magnetic pickup, or buying a nice B-Band or ABF (Anything But Fishman!) pickup and having a shop install it for you.
Also, what do you want it to look like? In that price range, there's a lot of tradeoffs of shiny/fancy appearance versus simple trim (supposedly putting the money into sound instead).
For the best ACOUSTIC sound in that price range, I'd get a low-end Blueridge like a BR-43, and then use a magnetic pickup. You could get in under $450 with a hard case that way. But the Blueridge appearance is... well, a matter of taste. They sound excellent though. Seagull (and other LaSiDo brands) sound really good in that price range too, although again looks are not typical.
Don't put too much concern into solid tops. That matters more as the guitar ages, and laminate tops can actually be really good live (where you want LESS detail, not more).
Oh, and yet another option for pure stage use is Graph-Tech saddle pickups for electric guitars. They sound REAL good, and you can get them installed cheaper than buying a decent acoustic. You won't have to bring an extra guitar then, either.
Anyway, tell us more about the context you'll be using this guitar in and I'll have some more ideas.