Rents will increase, your mortgage will not if you're locked in. The resale value of your house will be pushed down by reduced affordability, but pushed up by higher rents and cost of goods. Ultimately owning a hard asset in an inflationary period is a good idea.
Another article in the same Nautilus chapter addresses some of the variety of aging styles in other plants and animals (and concludes that aging is not in fact inevitable): http://nautil.us/issue/36/aging/why-aging-isnt-inevitable