The current Kawasaki Ninja 250R retails for $4299, and as far as I'm concerned there is no other choice.
The 250R feels balanced, it turns well, it accelerates well and stops well. Generally it is a good, sensible and all-round entirely practical bike.
The thing is that the 250R doesn't have the outright top speed of other bikes, because it is only a 250cc bike, but 99% of the time, you won't be doing any more than about 70mph (110km/h) anyway. Unless you have a lot of long motorway work (in which case you probably don't want to be on a bike anyway), the the 250R is brilliant.