Hey Gas, welcome to the forum! Good to hear you're looking at a ninja as your first bike, smart decision!
Concerning the price, I paid $3499 MSRP like Zartan did back in '08. That left me at $4200 OTD. I didn't have the option of buying a used bike. Finding a 08+ 250 in 08 was like trying to find hen's teeth. I was on a waiting list for 3 months before I got mine, and I had no choice in the color - it just happened to be red (YAY!).
The bike hasn't changed since '08, except for the color schemes. Kawi just kept raising the prices on the new ones, for what ever reasons...
So 5K is what it's going to take to get a new bike. Keep in mind, these fees will be tacked onto ALL new bikes sold, so say for instance, the 650R at $6499 MSRP (or whatever it is), is still gonna be $7,300 OTD, or something like that. Bigger bikes gets taxed more....
You might not notice the difference as much with bigger bikes, because respective to the MSRP price, the extra charges seem to be less and less of the overall price as the bike gets more expensive... A new ZX-10R - $13,999 MSRP + taxes, might only be $14,900, or maybe $15K, but a grand is only 1/14 of that bike's MSRP. Get what I'm saying?
OK, OK, OK. So you don't want to pay $5K for a 250... You could get a used 600 for $4K... Well, you can get a used 250 for $3K or maybe even less... If you look hard enough, you might be able to find one in very good shape, well taken care of, and no scratches, but don't expect it to be significantly less than the new bikes - you just don't have to pay all the extra fees, which makes it a lot less when comparing OTD with used bike value.... Also, a 250 is A LOT less expensive to maintain, if you ride a lot that is... Tires last longer, you can pretty do whatever you need by yourself (at least I can), an insurance is a wee bit cheaper.
OK, I'm rambling, getting off the soap box now.
Again, glad to have you here, keep checking in to share your story with us, eh?