I don't feel the need to talk you out of an SUV. The ones you identified are crossovers, and based on cars. Heck, the wife's Escape has more power, is quicker, more room, and marginally more offroad capable than my Focus and yet gets better MPG so no SUV guilt there.
I would probably lean away from an older high mile Subaru because of head gasket issues. That's just my preference. I'm sure thousands of high mileage units are running around with no problems.
If you "HAVE TO" buy new or not-very-used, I've seen base Subaru Imprezas advertised for $18.9k. Used cars generally make a lot more sense but I agree with your assessment that used values are unusually high. I'd rather spend $18.9k for a new Subie with a known history (that is, no history because its new) than $15k+ for something with 80-90k miles if I had to commute / travel and racked up miles (these are actual examples from around here). I've seen no Subies worth owning under $7k that didn't have a million miles, rust, problems, or all of the above. If you do decide to buy new, do yourself a favor and search nationwide. Sometimes a plane ticket (or even, having it shipped and never leaving your computer) is still cheaper than buying locally. In our pre-MMM days, we were looking at new Jukes when they first came out, local dealer was sticker and would not budge ($24k-ish), we could have flown to Vegas, had a weekend, a fun road trip back, and still saved around $2-3k. Plus the local dealer would have had to order the car so 6 weeks or more. Just a thought.