I am a grad student with a really limited budget and need a budget commuter bike. I’ve been looking at used bikes on fb marketplace/CL for a full month and any decent bike (or even frame, happy to refurbish/upgrade components) in my size is at or above retail. As a result, I think my best option is actually to go new. I commute for about 5 miles each way mostly on a dirt path, but would like to commute most days of the year so am looking for something similar to a gravel bike. My budget is $600, there’s no way I can stretch to 800-900 where the decent gravel bikes are. The bikes I am now choosing between are:

REI CTY 1.1 - $540 w/ dividend

Motobecane Strada Express X4 - $500

Motobecane Strada Express 24 - $600

Motobecane Gravel X2 - $600

I am pretty handy and can assemble the bike well enough if it’s from BD, and I might take it to the LBS to check wheel tuning, derailleurs, etc.

Would appreciate some input or leads on other bike. Since I’m biking through all conditions, I thought disc brakes might be helpful, but I’m not attached (I’ve always used rim brakes and they’d work fine 99% of the time).