Why are Woody Allen's characters almost always affluent?

So over the past few months, my boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of Woody Allen films. Some I like more than others though I’ll admit my favorites are the ones where he doesn’t make an appearance—I can’t stand the man’s presence on screen.

One thing I’ve noticed over and over again is that besides being neurotic, nebbish, and generally unlikeable; most of his characters appear to be fabulously wealthy.

Having lived in New York myself, I know that if you even have a studio apartment on the Upper West Side, you must be doing pretty well for yourself as it would cost between 2,000 and 2,500 a month not including maintenance, tipping your doormen, etc.

However, all of his characters live in amazing apartments and some of them don’t seem to have very high paying jobs. For example, in Melinda and Melinda a music teacher and her struggling actor husband live in an amazing apartment that made me positively drool. Then, I just felt crappy because I figured now matter how hard I work, I’ll probably never live like that :p

I saw a documentary about Woody Allen on a flight once and it said he was born to working/middle-class parents in Brooklyn. Has he lost touch with his roots or is he trying to make some kind of statement about the bourgeoisie?

Then again, if you ever go see one his films in a theater, just look around you and that’s exactly who you’ll see. Maybe the guy just knows his demographic and writes for them? To me it kind of indicates a lack of range as a writer that he seems to only be able to write a certain type of character while forgetting that not everyone is a trust fund baby who lives in Manhattan.

It seems to me that Allen never examines the privilege he portrays, it just simply exists. Personally, I find it very unsatisfying as an audience member. Thoughts?