It is known that the symmetric (massless) state of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model in 2+1 dimensions in a magnetic field B is not the ground state of the system at zero temperature due to the presence of a negative, linear in &|σ+iπ|,termintheeffectivepotentialforthecompositefieldsσ\sim\barψψandπ\sim\barψiγ^5ψ,whilethequadratictermisalwayspositive(atachyonisabsent).Wefindthatfinitetemperatureisanecessaryingredientforthetachyonicinstabilityofthesymmetricstatetooccur.UtilizingtheSchwinger−−Keldyshreal−timeformalismwecalculatethedispersionrelationsforthefluctuationmodesofthecompositefieldsσandπ$. We demonstrate the presence of the tachyonic instability of the symmetric state for coupling constant that exceeds a certain critical value which vanishes as temperature tends to zero in accordance with the phenomenon of magnetic catalysis.