Hey carney, good advice and real experiences are always welcome, can be quite a minefield finding a good starter guitar, I know the one I had put me off for years!

Based on the dates of these posts, I am way too late with this, but my two cents worth anyway:

I did no research and, being embarrassingly truthful, my first acoustic guitar buy was something of an impulse purchase that had been building for decades and finally exploded. I trusted the salesman at a local music store and my trust was not misplaced. He sold me an Ibanez SGT110VS or its immediate predecessor. A great beginner guitar, and for less than $150.00 at the time (currently around $180.00 at Musician’s Friend):

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-SGT110VS-SAGE-SERIES-Acoustic-Guitar-?sku=512325

I used it for a little over a year to find out if I really wanted to do this and then upgraded to a Taylor. I do not regret the purchase and have moved the Ibanez on to another beginner who is also well pleased.

Epiphone makes the AJ200s, which is a solid top, for $200. It is Indonesian, which is better than Chinese. I hope this isn’t too late. Have you bought one yet?

Crafter make fantastic beginer guitars, dont go for the epiphone dove, you want something with a nice tone, Yamaha would be better than the Epi,
one thing you should look for in an acoustic guitar is a solid top, i think you can get a solid top for your budget, you should also look for a mahogany back and sides, ive never played a good newish Epiphone acoustic (apart from the masterbuilt and USA stuff), also avoid Fender acoustics, they are not very good.
I have a Compass series Yamaha acoustic which plays like a dream, but it may just be out of your price range, i also have a Crafter acoustic parlour type which plays very nice, have a couple of others too, but i could go on forever…