Chicago's priciest pads have views of the lake, Millennium Park, but not the queen

Forbes.com has released its annual list of the 10 most expensive homes in the world, and — no surprise here — Chicago is nowhere to be found. Our priciest penthouses, like the $21-million and $22-million pads that top the Mandarin Oriental and the Fordham Spire, respectively, haven’t even been built yet, and they don’t come close to the $70-million triplex Pierre Penthouse in Manhattan (number eight on the list). The $9.6-million condo in Trump International Hotel & Tower pales in comparison to Trump’s $125-million Maison de L’Amitie in Palm Beach, Florida (number three on the list). Topping the Forbes list is the $139-million Updown Court in Windlesham, England. The 103-room spec house has five swimming pools, a 50-seat theatre, 24-carat gold leafing on the library floors, a heated marble driveway and, ahem, Queen Elizabeth II as a neighbor. Not even our mini-palaces on the North Shore can make that claim.