When selecting a tool for a professional purpose the real question is: when the going gets tough, the tough get going? It does not matter if a tool is "easy" to learn if half way thru a project you discover that either you cannot do what you want or that it entails a mindboggling amount of work.

Carrara: on DAZ forums, DAZ representatives discuss modeling using Blender. When a Carrara user complained, they did not even answer. Do your math.

Hexagon: slightly less support than Carrara.

Silo: development terminated.

Wings3D: only closed surfaces, open surfaces done with a ugly trick (transparent material).

Shade3D: almost japanese-only user community (does not inspire security for the purpose of finding information).

trueSpace: dead.

Maya, zBrush and the like do well (fiendishly well) their job but they are completely outside your budget.

There is only one program among those mentioned in this thread that won't let you down mid way and is inside you budget.

@EldritchCellar: Blender UV mapping is one of the most powerful parts of the program to the point that many 3DStudio/Maya professional users move the meshes to Blender for the UV part.

To everybody: have a look at what Blender modifiers do: among the programs I know, only 3D Studio and Houdini have similar (actually much more powerful) capabilities, i.e. enabling non-destructive workflows.