WNC closes 23rd California LIHTC fund at $66.3M

WNC & Associates has closed its 23rd consecutive California-focused affordable housing fund, a $66.3 million vehicle that will finance six new-construction family properties in Los Angeles, San Benito and San Diego counties, according to Connect CRE.

The fund, WNC Institutional Tax Credit Fund X California Series 23, L.P., will deploy capital across 650 homes and help four developers finish projects that will all serve families and rely on 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

“Closing CA23 is an important milestone for WNC as we celebrate our 55th year of operations,” said Will Cooper Jr., the firm's president and CEO. “We are proud of our California roots and the role our home state has played in WNC’s growth into a national affordable housing organization.”

Based in Irvine, WNC has built much of its national affordable housing business inside California, where it says it has sponsored 41 California-focused funds and invested in 350 properties across 180 communities alongside a broader national footprint.

At $66.3 million, CA23 is modest by institutional real estate standards, but the close matters because it extends a 23-fund run, each vehicle structured for institutional investors seeking California-specific affordable housing exposure. Because CA23 is a multi-investor vehicle, the capital came from a roster of allocators rather than a single anchor LP, which means WNC has found a repeatable investor base willing to say yes to the same narrow, state-level housing thesis, series after series.

The deal also runs against the grain of much multifamily capital formation: as this publication has argued, the institutional bid in apartments has been chasing scale even as rent growth stalls. CA23 makes a different bet: new construction rather than acquisitions, organized around the tax credit rather than market-rate rent appreciation.

None of this solves California's housing problem—the fund is too small for that—but 650 homes are real supply, and the four developers can now move their projects toward completion. In the affordable slice of the market, a fund like CA23 matters because it keeps the financing machinery turning while policy and construction costs do their slower work. The number to watch is whether WNC can file Series 24 with the same California discipline and institutional support; twenty-three consecutive funds suggest the answer, and California's affordable housing pipeline has good reason to hope the run continues.