If your going to forge blades, DO NOT skimp on your anvil. Stay away from the el cheapo cast iron models....they will work you to death, and within a couple of months will be "swaybacked" and useless. My personal favorite anvils are Trenton. I have three of them in the shop, all are wrought iron bodies with steel faces. I also own two Kolishwa anvils, which are one piece cast steel, and are very efficient. With the budget you mentioned, its gona be tough purchasing a good, new anvil. BUT.... you might want to look at the Emerson anvils from Emerson Horseshoe supply in Louisiana....they are very fairly priced, and I have worked on several...all were very nice to work on.
Another brand of new anvil that I can suggest looking at is Nimba. They are out of Washington state.
As far as size, my opinion is that 125lb anvil is the minimum that I would have for bladesmithing. As to the hardness, I would be inclined to get one that has a face in the Rc 50-55 range. Something to be consicous of is the hardness of your anvil face versus the hardness of the hammer(s) you use. Your going to occasionally make a mis-strike, and if your hammer is harder than the anvil, it will leave a dent/ding in the anvil face, which is a royal pain to fix. I always use hammers that are softer than the anvil...that way when I do make a mis-strike, I can easily reface the hammer, rather than have to go through the huge amount of time and effort it takes to repair a ding in the anvil face.
I know you said that used anvils are not common around your part of the world, but don't give up. A fella in Idaho put an add in his local paper for used anvils....he got covered up with calls, and wound up buying several, and then sold them for a good profit. He also came across a 250lb gem that he kept for himself.
Those are my thoughts, and I hope others chime in too,
