Check on cycletrader.com for an EX500 or a Ninja 250 or maybe even a 600 Katana. All would make great starter bikes and all would come really cheap. Plus, many people claim to ride them for a year and then sell for exactly what they paid, so you might not even lose any money on the deal.
IMO, stay away from anything with an "R" in the model name or any 600 that was made after 1993. They'll be too much like a race replica, which will be very twitchy and unforgiving. Despite people's claims that they turned out just fine starting on such bikes, they were likely just lucky. Plenty of dead newbies chose those bikes for their first (and last) bike...