New York City’s $125.8 billion budget is larger than the combined budgets of Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, and Miami. How is that possible?
In this conversation, Keith DeCoster, REBNY’s Vice President of Market Data and Policy, pulls back the curtain on the revenue engine behind New York City government: real estate. From property taxes to transaction activity, real estate-related tax revenues form the fiscal foundation that supports essential city services, public investments like mass transit, and New York’s continued growth.
The discussion will explore how deeply the City’s spending power — and the quality-of-life New Yorkers expect — depends on the continued strength of the real estate sector.

Joshua Soble will provide a practical overview of the geothermal energy landscape, focusing on ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems and their applications across the built environment. Drawing on his real-world experience on geothermal and thermal energy network projects, he’ll cover how these systems work, where they make economic and technical sense, and what owners should understand about integrating them into new and existing buildings. The session is designed to help attendees evaluate geothermal as a real option for their portfolios—cutting through the hype to the fundamentals that drive project viability.
Joshua Soble is the Principal of TerraMorph Group, a New York–based advisory and project-development firm serving the geothermal and thermal energy network (TEN) industry, where he advises technology providers, developers, and property owners on market strategy, feasibility, master planning, and project delivery. He serves on the Board of Directors of Geothermal Rising, the geothermal industry’s leading professional association. Prior to founding TerraMorph, Josh was US Country Manager for Celsius Energy, SLB’s (formerly Schlumberger) shallow geothermal heating and cooling business, where he led the US business and drove deployment of Celsius’s geothermal solution across both existing-building retrofits and new construction developments — reducing carbon emissions, lowering operating expenses, and optimizing property operations. He was a contributor to the Eversource geothermal TEN pilot in Framingham, Massachusetts, the first utility-owned networked geothermal system in the United States. Over his career, Josh has developed a broad range of renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects, including solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, cogeneration systems, HVAC overhauls, real-time energy management (RTEM) building monitoring and controls, and green-building certifications (LEED, EGC, Passive House, and more). Earlier in his career, he worked at leading renewable energy trade associations in Washington, DC, including the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), The Solar Foundation, and the American Biogas Council. Josh holds a B.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Michigan and lives in New York City with his wife.