In fact, the latest Demographia survey has named Tauranga the 12th least affordable city in the world from a sample of 293 cities - ahead of Auckland.
The Demographia survey compares incomes to house prices to calculate how many years it takes to pay off a median-priced house if all income was poured into the mortgage.
It found Tauranga's median house price was 9.7 times the median income.
One impact of this is that there are fears young teachers may be put off shifting to Tauranga because of its reputation for unaffordable housing.
Dane Robertson, co-chairman of the Western Bay Principals' Association, says schools are not currently struggling to find staff but it could become a problem in the future, and the lifestyle lure of the Western Bay of Plenty is at risk from the rising cost of housing.
He notes that three years ago a lot of Auckland teachers were applying for jobs in the Western Bay, presumably because it was more affordable.
It would be deeply concerning if we started to lose highly skilled people to other regions because they are more affordable.
