People always ask "How much does a website cost?"  That is really similar to asking "How much does a car cost?"  There are so many variants of websites depending how how attractive you want it to much, what kind of performance you want/need, and how many bells & whistles you want to add.  Below it or not, it might be even be beneficial to use that metaphor with your web designer.  If you say:

"I am looking for something that looks new and professional, but nothing fancy.  Prefer reliability that can just get the job done every day with just the basics for features."

then they are probably not going to whip out a portfolio of custom-designed, animated websites, with virtual characters that narrate the site.