The U.S. is reported to have one of the most developed green building markets. The country wide success must start from the success of different local markets. So how many important local green building markets are there in the U.S. and why those areas became important? The answers can provide useful implications for developing countries like China to better promote their green building markets. To explore the question in a numerical way, this study therefore collected the data of 17,636 green building projects in the U.S., clustered them into 39 important regions, and analyzed the numerical patterns behind based on 82 different features covering demography, economy, education, climate and policy. Non-linear machine learning algorithms help find that economic factors and educational factors are one of the most influential features. Discoveries were also implemented in China to suggest 20 areas to be the focus of developing Chinese green building market. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.