It's an interesting solution to increase the supply of housing in areas that are already (relatively) dense and unaffordable, like the Bay Area, where it's already common for people in downtown areas to live above or adjacent to retail businesses, and where many people consider walkability to retail businesses a valuable thing. Santana Row is already designed and targeted at high-end tastes for retail, so it's easier to extend that to high end housing.

However, in suburban areas where housing is cheaper (per sq ft), unless denser housing at the mall provides other urban-style benefits (i.e. higher end retail, easier workplace access, mass-transit hubs, shared civic spaces, cultural event proximity, etc.) it may just appear like "living at the mall", with all the connotations thereof. Put another way, all else equal, most people don't want to live adjacent to the "Hot Topic" and the "As Seen on TV" stores. The balance has to be more toward feeling like a place to live and work, not a public shopping center. Dense cities, with all of their retail, still feel like places people live and/or work.

If, however, they are able to provide those other "public" goods along with the mall, then perhaps it is a great shortcut to reshaping the landscape of suburban america towards a more mixed-use and sustainable model.

Mixed use retail/residential is popping up all over the suburbs, at least in MD/VA. There are 10+ story apartment buildings around Annapolis Town Center, Reston Town Center, Columbia Mall, Tyson’s Corner, Dunn Loring, etc. They don’t eliminate your car commute, but at least you don’t have to get in the freeway to get a hair cut.

I've seen these developments, but they have been designed from the start with such use in mind, are in prosperous areas, and have (at least by US standards) decent transit options and civic facilities. They aren't so different from Santana Row.

I'm less convinced (though open) that suburban malls in economically depressed areas that are in the path of the retail apocalypse can be retrofit to this purpose.

On the other hand, if people do live there, stores that sell stuff that they actually buy should do somewhat better. It should move the mall at least somewhat in the right direction.

My first reaction to seeing these listings was to feel very disconnected from people who like the mall so much they want to live there. But it's a fantastic idea. You don't often get the opportunity to create new dense urban cores in the Bay Area.