You can't go wrong with Pro Tools. I know a lot of people seem to have a beef with it for some reason, but it really is the industry standard. Depending on your needs, price is obviously going to fluctuate. If you're just going to be recording yourself, and maybe overdubbing guitar/ vocals, you can get an mbox mini with Pro Tools LE software for 300 bucks. If you're going to record a whole band (each instrument on it's owm track), you would have to spend around 1500 bucks. Like I said, Pro Tools is the industry standard and all files are compatible with other PT Systems, so you could record your tracks at home and take them to virtually any professional studio and they could open your session files to tweak or add other instruments. A lot of musicians nowadays are recordings basic guitar and bass tracks on Pro Tools at home and taking the files to studio to have drums done.
With that said, there are tons of other options out there. Cubase is definitely another great program, as is Apple's Logic. It all comes down to how serious you are and what you are willing to spend.