For the price of a new car, you can have a private island along the Delta waterways in Stockton.
But act fast. Interest in the triangular-shaped piece of land has been picking up, and the listing agent expects the lot will sell quickly.
Listed on Zillow this week for $39,000, the 5.6-acre site sits on west Eight Mile Road, 20 miles from downtown Stockton. Accessible only by boat, the spot is nestled inside a part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta known as White Slough, a stretch of river channels known for fishing and boating.
Real estate agent Monte Morris said he’s been “inundated” with calls thanks to viral posts from outlets such as SFGate.
“Everybody’s interested in it,” Morris told Stocktonia. “There’s been a lot of people calling to do everything you can imagine.”
Some “bizarre” ideas for the island have come up in Morris’ conversations with potential buyers, including cultivating the site as a marijuana grow operation or using it as a base for Jet Ski rentals.
But the property, classified as a berm, may not be particularly usable beyond farming, he said.
“It’ll be a little tough to use, but I think the appeal is two things: It’s super low priced … and purely for the novelty of owning it,” Morris said.
The island listing is Morris’ third in the region. In 2020, he sold an 18-acre spit just across the waterway for $43,000 that attracted seven offers, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Unlike the housing market, where data can update monthly to help track trends, public interest in Central Valley islands is something Morris said he “just can’t explain.”
“On an island? In the Central Valley? These convey so seldom that there’s no data at all,” he said. “And three years ago, that’s a different market. … You may as well be in a different state.”
While the newest listing has pulled in offers “well over” the asking price, Morris said no bids have resulted in a deal — yet. But one offer, proposed as a site for beekeeping and tomato growing, may be the land’s most fitting use, he said.
For bids not tied to farming, Morris said it’s up to the buyers to figure out whether their plans fit within San Joaquin County regulations.
“All I’m doing is putting it out there,” Morris said. “They have to figure out if that’s going to work in this place.”