Essentially handmade bikes cost 2-5x more than $1500 now. $150 will buy you a Wallmart piece of junk. A utility bike suitable for bombing around a city is going to cost somewhere around $1000. I own three that each have a > $2K replacement cost, even with me building the wheels and installing everything but the bottom bracket. Yep you can easily spend more than $1500 for a single speed bare bones bike, and the people that build them have waiting lists years long.
At least in the UK, you can get decent enough bikes from Decathlon for about £300 (including our 20% tax). Double that and you'll open up a lot of options, including entry-level Dutch bikes.
I rode a £250 Triban in London for 7 years until I sold it recently for an e-bike. It's not handmade, but it's a solid bicycle. I did have to upgrade the tyres to Schwalbe Marathon Plus, though, to stop the punctures.
