It began with flippant remarks, targeted to outrage, by social commentator Bernard Salt decrying the evils of the hipster cafe in the Weekend Australian recently.

“I have seen young people order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at $22 a pop and more,” Salt wrote. “I can afford to eat this for lunch because I am middle-aged and have raised my family.

“But how can young people afford to eat like this? Shouldn't they be economising by eating at home? How often are they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a deposit on a house.”

Typically, a furore erupted online – giving an outrageous amount of weight to a fairly trite piece – and sadly overshadowing a brilliant article by fellow colleague Paul Kelly on Donald Trump and the Republican ascendancy – or rather descendancy – of morals .

Salt’s outburst was followed up this week with a clarification for the generation which lacks interpretation of satire … but alas the housing beast was unharnessed. He was called “silly”, an “arrogant prick” and worse. Thousands of columns in both print and cyberspace, hundreds of barbecue and water cooler conversations – and avocado on toast lovers along with the housingless – have had their two bob’s worth. Delightfully, the wonderfully comic Bellingen Gelato Bar was proactive in its take (see image).

Salt’s ‘bewilderment’ at the youth of today paying $22 a pop for avocado toast struck a nerve.

The Bellingen Shire has been, and continues to be, awash with people without the means to own their own house. Many are locked out of the housing market, and there’s no joke in that.

The Sydney Morning Herald analysed the metro market and found it takes more than eight years to save a 10 per cent deposit in Canberra, Darwin, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide: “But forget about the 20 per cent deposit – it takes about two decades in all those cities, except in Darwin where capital growth is so high you'll be nearing retirement before you get there”.

The median dwelling price in Sydney is $1.03 million and the average income after tax is $5078 a month. In Melbourne it's $843,200 for the property and $4833 in monthly income.

Hobart is better, though average incomes are lower, it takes just five years and three months to save a 10 per cent deposit on the city's median dwelling, or 10 and a half years to save 20 per cent.

According to homesales.com.au, the median price for a house in Bellingen is $428,046 and the median price for units is $304,253. However, unlike the city, wages are much lower – the average income of each resident is $2464 per month*.

In other words, it’s difficult for many people, single income families and pensioners especially, to buy into the local market.

Urunga is similar in costs to Bellingen (though this may change if the developments continue to flourish along the coast – the traditional housing market trend), but Dorrigo does look better in regard to buying a home.

According to www.realestate.com.au the median house price on the Plateau is $340,000. The median individual income is $1524 a month (median household income is $2780 a month).

It’s fair to say, the conversation around housing within the Valley will not be sated with tongue-in-cheek ripostes from News Ltd columnists. The point is, housing is a human right.

Still, it’d be nice to think home ownership and avocado brunches are incompatible – sadly, even Scott Morrison thinks otherwise. He suggests it’s the state government’s fault – or is this just a fruity political play?​

*Average incomes, as well as average house prices, for the Shire vary according to different data. Until this year’s ABS Census information is collated, only the 2011 figures are available. Thus there are slight discrepancies in the Shire’s monetary and housing figures across both government and non-government institutions.