The first of what may eventually be as many as 15 newly built green homes in Pilsen has sold at a price that set a new record for the gentrifying neighborhood. And two more that are soon to finish may raise the ante even further.

The three-bedroom, 3,200-square-foot house on Newberry Avenue sold for just under $685,000 in late October, according to the listing agent. It's the highest price for a home sold in Pilsen in at least the past six years, according to the records of Midwest Real Estate Data, and only the second above $600,000.

Two more homes by the same builder, Cill Dara Construction, are under contract to buyers, to be sold when construction is complete in the next few months. Their asking prices are $700,000 and $714,900. The listing agent for all three, Phillip Buoscio of Better Living Realty, could not disclose their contracted sale prices but said "they'll help prove our case for this market."

With Cill Dara's president, Patrick Buckley, Buoscio wants to make the case that green-built houses can raise the roof on home prices in Pilsen.

Based on Buoscio's research with homebuyers and appraisers, "we think people will pay a premium of about $50,000 for the green features that make a house healthier to live in," he said, "but they won't go for more than that."

He and Buckley chose green options that together would add $50,000 or less to the cost of the home. They included super-tight construction that eliminates cold air leaks, a

system that circulates fresh outdoor air inside the house year-round, finishes that have few or no volatile organic compounds and a type of drywall that "eats" VOCs to improve indoor air quality, according to the manufacturer. Two of the houses complete or underway are on Newberry Street and a third is on Cullerton Street.

"There are also nice, pretty things like bamboo floors," said Kimberly Galban, who with her partner, Erling Wu-Bower, bought the house on Newberry Street last month, "but we think the heart of it, the real green features, are more important." The couple also had solar panels installed on the roof, at an additional cost not in their purchase contract.

Galban said they didn't blink at paying a price that set a new high bar for the neighborhood. "Even with the green features, we paid less per square foot than we were seeing in Logan Square," she said.

Forty newly built homes have been sold in Logan Square in the past year, at an average of $264 per square foot, according to MRED. Galban, vice president of operations at One Off Hospitality, and Wu-Bower, chef de cuisine at Nico Osteria, paid $224 a foot for their house.

Starting with a lower land price makes tacking on $50,000 for green features a little easier to swallow. Last November, Buckley's firm paid $325,000 for the lot where he built Galban's new home. For a slightly larger lot on Maplewood in Logan Square, a builder paid $625,000 at about the same time.