Every weekday morning I travel 35 miles from my home in Kingwood, a nice neighborhood east of downtown Houston, to Hart Energy headquarters in west Houston. I certainly don’t need census figures to inform me that Houston is growing. It’s clear from the traffic on the freeways, and time spent on the road, that Houston is exploding—just like my head is about to do when I experience yet another rush-hour jam.

Greater Houston, which consists of an eight-county region, is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population of 6.18 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 estimates.

The region expects to see a population increase in the next 30 years of more than 3.5 million people. Two million of those people will move into Harris County, the home of Houston. A city of Houston website says that’s the equivalent of adding a second Houston to Harris County. The influx is expected to spawn about 1 million new jobs.

Houston, like the other metropolitan areas in Texas, will continue to bank on jobs provided by the oil and gas industry. Here’s the bottom line: Demographers say that oil and gas is the biggest driver of jobs in Houston and the rest of the state, and should continue to be so in the future.

Do a Google search for “oil and gas jobs in Texas,” and in a flash you will get 16.7 million results. Like the dizzying traffic, that’s enough to make your head swirl.

There’s no question that Houston—the land of no zoning laws, oppressive humidity, ugly strip malls and that darned traffic—serves up a potent dose of negativity at times. But overall, the bad begins to fizzle when the positive factors are factored in.

Houston has affordable housing, although it’s not as plentiful as it used to be. A real estate agent who works in our office building offered some insight into what the move-to-Houston mood is creating. “One of my listings had 17 offers,” she said. “I never thought I would see that here.” Still, the median price of a Houston-area home is $235,000. Compare that to a median price of $492,000 in Los Angeles, and the Houston humidity isn’t all that bad.

Does an active real estate market have anything to do with oil and gas? Affirmative, says a longtime colleague who works in the real estate business. “What’s happening in real estate here is because of oil and gas. That’s just how it is.”

In Rice University and the University of Houston, the city has quality options in higher education. Rice has long been considered an institute of academic excellence, but UH has finally arrived on the national scene. The Carnegie Foundation elevated the University of Houston to Tier One status in 2011. As a UH alum, I can tell you that Tier One status was achieved despite the school being chronically underfunded by the state.

Yet, in the case of UH, underfunding was overcome by innovation. As part of its Tier One journey, UH created the nation’s first subsea engineering graduate program. “In partnership with the world’s leading energy engineering companies, the University of Houston has created a relevant 21st century energy engineering education …,” Dr. Matthew A. Franchek, the program’s founding director, says on the UH website. “Our program is the next step in an international outreach effort resulting in UH emerging as the Energy University.”

The influence of education, however, is not limited to the universities. The city is a real-time laboratory for learning about the industry. Houston’s oil and gas conferences have long been a global attraction. Based on the overstuffed parking areas at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference, interest in gleaning information about the industry is remains sharp.

On a lighter note, Forbes’ Morgan Brennan wrote a story in which she ranked Houston the “coolest city” in the country. Granted, she must have been ensconced in an air-conditioned office building when she pecked out her story. She not only cited a favorable economy, but lauded the city’s “thriving arts scene and excellent restaurants."

“The Bayou City may not be the first place you associate with being hip or trendy. But Houston has something many other major cities don’t: jobs,” Brennan wrote. She went on to say that Houston is a lure for young professionals. “In fact, the median age of a Houston resident is a youthful 33,” she observed.

With the “big crew change” coming during the next decade, Houston appears to be positioned to provide some answers.

Meanwhile the heat and humidity are soaring, and the traffic is stacking up. But I do have a job.

Sure hope I can make it to work today.

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