Learn English – Difference between “had hoped to” and “hoped to”

(1) Mike hoped to live in that house, but he couldn't afford it.

(2) Mike had hoped to live in that house, but he couldn't afford it.

The use of the past perfect form (had hoped) entails the need for looking back in time from a standpoint that feels remote to the speaker.

Normally, the standpoint that feels remote to the speaker is a point in the past.

Let's see @Billy Kerr's example here:

The house stood on a hill in a beautiful area of the city. Mike went to see the bank manager because he had hoped to live in that house, but couldn't afford it. The bank manager was sympathetic and agreed to a loan.

Here, the point is in the past from which the speaker views the event of hoping is Mike going to see the bank manager.

However, this is not the only case where the standpoint that feels remote to the speaker is a point in the past.

Here's what this article starts with:

I had hoped to get through the first week of 2018 without writing a heart-stopping column about mice.

But I can see now that I was a fool.

Because this article starts with this, there's no context before the first line of I had hoped to... Still, it uses the past perfect form (had hoped). Why?

Because the writer wanted to make it clear at the outset that his hope could not be realized at a certain point in the past.

The meaning of hoping entails that you're not sure about whether the hope will be realized as a reality or not. Once it's determined that the hope is not realizable, you can no longer call it a "hope."

Although the writer didn't specifically mention in the article when that certain point in the past was, we can easily guess that certain point is somewhere between his hoping in the past and the time of writing the article (the present), and we can guess it from the second line (But I can see now that I was a fool.)

Now going back to the need for looking back in time from a standpoint that feels remote to the speaker, the standpoint that feels remote to the speaker can be something other than a point in the past.

If I had hoped to live in that house, I would have worked harder.

Here, the past perfect form (had hoped) still entails the need for looking back in time from a standpoint that feels remote to the speaker. But now the standpoint that feels remote to the speaker is not a point in the past but the present point in a hypothetical world.