Houston keeps defying gravity. The metro added nearly 200,000 residents last year, pushing the population above 7.8 million. Chevron’s shift of its headquarters from California to Houston, backed by $100 million in renovations, crowns relocations drawn by record 2024 Port Houston throughput of more than four million containers and a projected 71,000 new jobs in 2025. Watch the #37 Standard of Living ranking keep climbing.
The HyVelocity Hydrogen Hub just locked in up to $1.2 billion from the U.S. DOE, targeting 45,000 jobs and slicing 7.7 million tons of CO₂ a year. Chevron will break ground on a $5 billion blue hydrogen and ammonia facility in 2027. Incredibly, Zillow pegged the 2024 median home value around $265,000 – well below the U.S. norm, despite Houston’s #16 global ranking for Large Companies and its #19 finish for Economic Output. Energy transition dollars are cascading. West Houston’s Greenside will convert 35,000 square feet of warehouses into a retail, restaurant and community hub around a one-acre park by 2026, while America’s inaugural Ismaili Center remains on schedule for later this year. The gathering place for the community and home for programs promoting understanding of Islam and the Ismaili community is another cultural jewel for the country’s most proudly diverse major city.