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Green buildings help to mitigate the impacts of construction on the environment by reducing the use of natural resources and limiting the emission of air pollutants associated with building construction and maintenance. Homebuyers who understand the life-cycle benefits of green buildings (such as lower operating costs, better indoor environment and reduced environmental impacts) are often willing to pay an additional price premium for such buildings. Although several studies examined the factors affecting the acceptable size of green building price premium, how the expected time to home purchase might affect the acceptable size of such premium remains unexplored. Here, we attempt to answer this question by using data from a countrywide survey carried out in Israel, in which responses from 390 potential homebuyers were collected and analyzed. We find that the willingness to pay a price premium for green buildings changes significantly with time to purchase and is the lowest for respondents who state that they do not plan to buy a home anytime in the near future. We explain this rather unexpected result by arguing that people who have no immediate home buying intention, might have only limited knowledge about contemporary housing market trends and thus do not consider green building as a viable alternative to traditional construction.